The most unusual books: fiction ⁂ Antilibraries Analects ⁂

I want to share with you a favorite website, a fantastic resource for well-curated and out of the ordinary book reviews: The Complete Review

A selectively comprehensive, objectively opinionated survey of books old and new, trying to meet all your book review, preview, and information needs.

The site boasts nearly five thousand books under review, with an array of ways to browse — top rated books, lowest rated, by genre, by nationality, and many more indices, including an index of “review overviews” (essentially a list of meta-reviewed books; quite appealing from an antilibrarian perspective!)

Among the lists I find particularly interesting: those of the most unusual, most obscure, and must underappreciated books reviewed on the site.

I’d like to share some favorite finds from one of these favorite pages on this wonderful website: The Most Unusual Books at the complete review

Books that are out of the ordinary have their own special appeal. Here is our selection of the most unusual books currently under review, ranked in some order of peculiarity…

The list is split by fiction (30 books) and nonfiction (18 books). This week, a selection of the unusual fiction that caught my eye:

• The School for Atheists
• Donogoo-Tonka or the Miracles of Science: A Cinematographic Tale
• Hocus Bogus
• Nazi Literature in the Americas
• Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires: An Attainable Utopia
• Cobralingus
• The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by her Minstrel Laura

There are also a couple books here I’ve started or are on my list to read — Edouard Levé’s Works and Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. And a couple familiar Oulipians on here — Georges Perec and Harry Mathews.

(I also recognize a couple books I think I’ve linked to in an antilibraries email a long while back…which I can’t quite remember if I found on this very list, or elsewhere.)

I’ve opened tabs for each listed book and skimmed listings but haven’t thoroughly explore them all; I suggest browsing the list and reading the reviews of any that catch your eye!

And of course I’d love to hear: what’s the most unusual book on your shelves? Or in your antilibrary?

Brendan