Let's discuss unique books. What is the first one that comes to your mind? The uniqueness can be about the book's plot, structure, ideas, themes, topics etc.

For me such a book is Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It's been a while since I've read it but I remember how mindblowing it was for me. Every time I thought it couldn't surprise me more, it actually did. There's a bit of everything there: peculiar characters, a substance called ice-nine that can freeze water on contact (as humans are around 60% water, it can instantly kill them), a fictional religion called Bokononism based on the idea that human life has no absolute truth or meaning, a tiny island nation with its own bizarre world. All of these come together to show us a satire of the absurdity of humanity.

As for a unique book structure, I have to say it's Cain's Jawbone by Edward Mathers. It's a kind of puzzle book where pages are not in order and you need to arrange them in order to guess whodunnit. I haven't finished this one yet but it's a cool challenge.

Not a book but a comic. I remember being incredibly down that summer and getting recommended Zot! by Scott McCloud and it up my mood. I think that it’s one of the best comic ever written

Probably William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Blake hand painted the illustrations for each copy individually, so each copy is truly unique.

Non fiction:
Managing Neurodiverse Workplaces by Joe Biel and Elly Blue

My runner ups are:

• Native American DNA by Kim TallBear
• Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System by M. Chris Fabricant
• Permission to Speak by Samara Bay

Fiction:
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

My runners up are:

• Ours by Phillip B. Williams
• Magic Has No Borders by (everyone on earth!?) Samira Ahmed, Sona Charaipotra, Sabaa Tahir, Sayantani DasGupta, Tanaz Bathena, Sangu Mandanna, Olivia Chadha, Nafiza Azad, Tracey Baptiste, Naz Kutub, Nikita Gill, Swati Teerdhala, Shreya Ila Anasuya, Tahir Abrar, and Preeti Chhibber
• The Cretaceous Past by Cixin Liu

Illuminae. It's an epistolary novel, so it's narrated in the standard sense. They are often told via letters from protaganists to another chatlogs, or other documents. From wikipedia about Illuminae:

The story is told through a series of documents; including classified reports, censored emails, camera transcriptions, and interviews

(I did not quote it in full because I'm trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I remember having a lot of fun when I read it without knowing anything, I just picked it up from the library and started reading.)

This book definitely wins for uniqueness of form, although I now understand what type of book it is and how to find more like that. But I've only ever read one book like that.

Although House of Leaves also counts a little bit as epistolary fiction but we've all heard of House of Leaves so that one doesn't count.

Though, 17776 - wikipedia, is even more unique and also epistolary speculative fiction, but that's not a book, but is instead online articles (which means it can include videos!).

You can start reading that one, right now, here: https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football

Probably "The Stones of Summer" by Dow Mossman.

It's often kinda gibberish but poetical anyways. Been a twenty years since I read it, but it stuck with me anyways. I can't say it's great, but it definitely exists.

X X by Rian Hughes.

One of the books conceits is that certain character speak in a particular typeface.

Great science fiction book with a million twists.

Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić.

It’s a novel written in the form of three (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) interwoven but mutually-contradictory encyclopedias, with events and characters spanning over a thousand years of history.

The weirdest story I ever read was something I randomly picked up at a bookstore called Touched by Venom.

I remember the main character underwent female genital mutilation and had repeat oral sex with dragons which are venomous and gave her psychic visions on how to get male dragons which were very rare and was how the economy was controlled. And her mother was a phoenix or something.

Easily house of leaves. I've never seen another book play with formatting like that. It has you reading upside down, backwards, all over the place.

Structure-wise, probably House of Leaves. It uses appendices and several categories of footnotes extensively, to the point that the footnotes begin to dominate the pages (putting it lightly). There's so much flipping back and forth that an onlooker would assume you're reading a choose-your-own-adventure book.

Content-wise, it's hard to choose. I'll say The Illuminatus Trilogy, which is a semi-absurdist study of authority and human nature, through the lens of a labyrinthine web of conspiracy theories, jumping between at least a dozen character perspectives.

"House of Leaves" is also my answer.

Such a weird story in such a good way

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Any of the weird fiction by Steve Erickson, but this is probably my favorite: Tours of the Black Clock

Blood Meridian (McCarthy) is the only book I finished, turned to the first page and read again immediately because I didn't feel like I got it the first time.

Confederacy of Dunces (Toole) has some of the most unique characters I've ever read. The story of how it got published and won a Pulitzer is almost as crazy as the plot.

There is no Antimemetics division (qntm) is rather derivative of the "SCP Foundation" weblore, but it drills down so hard on the idea of creatures that consume, steal, or are powered by human memory that the plot will bend your mind and delight your imagination. Best science fiction I read in forever.

I’ll also mention Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney. I felt like I was on drugs while reading that book, loved it.

Always Coming Home by Ursula K Le Guin. It is a fictional ethnography written from the far future about a culture in the near future after life after some apocalyptic event in the very near future. Maybe 1/6th of it is like a traditional narrative about a girl who grows up stuck between two cultures. Her mother is a member of the Kesh which is the culture the book studies and her father is of a different culture called the Condor. Their cultures are dramatically different. The Kesh are anarchic, egalitarian, matriarchal and peaceful. The Condor are capitalist, patriarchal and war like. The rest of the book goes into detail about the Kesh. It tells some of their legends, fairy tales. It describes their performance art. It describes their creation myth. It talks about their holidays and their relationships.

Le Guin is my favorite author ever. The Dispossessed and the Left Hand of Darkness are such incredible books. Le Guin is a very strong anarchist and she uses this book and many of her other works to criticize capitalism. But none of them do so in a way as unique and artistic as Always Coming Home. It's moving, it's touching. It really takes you to another world and culture and helps you to see some of the assumptions you have just because you live in this world. This book is a work of absolute genius. I don't think any other work of art I've ever read has really conveyed something ideological as so personal and moving.

It's a slow burn and parts of it will baffle and confuse you. But the totality of it is so incredibly unique and artistic that I think it's worth suffering through the rougher edges.

Slaughterhouse Five deserves a mention.

My standard response is still Ridley Walker, though there are many other contenders ;)

I still gotta say piers anthony's geoodyssey. plot travels through history with figures who experience the plot in total in different time periods but you as the reader see each part in each time period as a part. I mean I have trouble putting it into words for the way it works.

Not sure if its the most unique but I picked up an old copy of a book called 'Apologizing to Dogs'. Very weird cast of characters and an interweaving plot. Strange book but fun to read.

Or 'A Journey to Arcturus' which is a weird-ass philosophical book dressed up as scifi.

The Magical Code of Regulations: A Fantasy Rulebook of Spellcasting Laws, Arcane Regulation, and Magical Compliance by Christopher Frigo

It's a legal code, written like a true legal code, except it's about magic use. It's really well done, not ment to be read cover to cover (like the real deal) but it's pretty trippy.

If you want to see an exemple of the content Ben Milton over at Questing Beast did a video about it.

House or Leaves for the reasons already mentioned by others.

City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. It's not exactly a story but a collection of artifacts: some short stories, poems, comics, an encyclopedia full of footnotes etc. that come together to build a world. Some of it is hard to read but the end result is worth it.

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin. Again a collection instead of a story. In each chapter a different world is described with its people and culture. And Le Guin is great at building worlds. I found this format very relaxing to read.

Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I haven't read all books (there's too many of them) but if you like satire through fiction you'll find a lot of it here on a variety of topics.

And I think I'll stop here before this becomes a huge list.

Self-Reference Engine by Toh Enjoe takes the most unique approach to story structure of anything I've ever read.

This is a really cool book. I don’t think it’s particularly unique in terms of its structure but the concepts it discusses and the parallels it draws across fields are worth thinking about.

Great recommendation thank you, will read

+1 for There is no Antimemetics Division, awesome book

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is mindblowingly impressive and cool, and I think well predicts a lot in it current culture and society, including technologically. Best part beyond the story is he’s just one of the most talented writers who ever lived.

Embassytown by China Mieville, absolutely incredible, almost everything about it is unique. He’s become one of my favorite authors and everything I’ve read by him is original in concept. Embassytown takes the cake though. The aliens are so strange, it’s the most alien feeling I’ve ever had. My brain and thinking is still affected by what I read over a year ago.

Blindsight by Peter Watts is also great with original concepts and delivery.

Oh yes, ye old Illuminatis Trilogy. It’s been over 35 years since I read it and it twisted my young brain up, set me up for life of weirdness.

I will say, if you're unfamiliar with Le Guin's work, I would recommend reading "The Dispossessed" first. It's written more traditionally and I think it's a better entry point for a new Le Guin reader. It also has a lot of the same themes as Always Coming Home.

It's the only book I've read more than once, and I've read it at least 3 times. Sometimes I'll flip to a random page as a form of divination

I read twice in my twenties and my copy was completely trashed as I’d loan it to friends often. The last time I loaned it out was not returned before I left town.

I may need to read it again soon, probably buy a copy. I’ve been using the library for my reads the last few years and now I only buy books tht I know for sure I plan a reread.

Just this week got used copies of Embassytown and Lord of Light so I wouldn’t need to check them out again.

Hou ! I’ll have to add that to the list

Cool cool, I have read that one and liked it (though I thought the prose was sometimes dry and the plot very on the nose but maybe that’s just me) but its messages were great and super interesting.

Quarantine by Greg Egan.

It's a really tough read. Simultaneous quantum multiverse tough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine_(Egan_novel)

Opened this thread to submit House of Leaves.

It's not just the footnotes though. As the characters walk down an increasingly small hallway, the words on the page start lower and lower on the page like you're hunching down with the characters. And when they sprint, there are fewer and fewer words on each page until you're flipping as fast as they're running.

Oh, and the plot is about a house bigger on the inside than the outside and the cover of the book is like a quarter inch shorter than the pages in it.

So many examples like this

Last year I read "The Fifth Season" by NK Jemison. It's a trilogy, but this is the name if the first book. Very interesting story, very weird and kind of depressing. However, what makes me suggest it here is that it's written in second person, so it's like the reader is the main character and the narrator is telling you your own story that you forgot. "You picked up your things and went out the door." I've never read a novel written that way before and it was really cool.

I keep an eye out for cheap copies, and then just give them to people. Besides my personal hardcover, I've probably bought and given away 10 copies over the years

Was going to post Infinite Jest as well. It's amazing how many things he predicted in it just by looking at where society was heading. He also actually attended AA meetings in Boston as part of his research for it.

Another mind blowing part for me, among many, was realizing that you have to read the book several times to catch every little joke, subplot, reference, etc. So it actually mirrors the titular movie in the book, which is so addictive you just watch it over and over.

There's a great interview DFW did on Book Worm where he says the structure of the book is modeled after a Sierpiński gasket. So for me, it's all the layers and world building that make it special.

Oh great then yeah I think you'll enjoy Always Coming Home.

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. A challenge (and a little silly?) to be sure, but vivid and mind bending.

And the best thing is that

House of Leaves

I keep hearing about this book. I watched a little bit of a no spoiler video to see what it was about. Something about the unusualness calls to me

Would you recommend hardback or paperback?

That good ergodic epistolary fiction.

Honestly think it's worth putting that in spoiler tags

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson has probably the most imaginative plot of any book I’ve read in recent memory.

This book is heavy. I had the paperback version and for a fiction read it is massive. I prefer paperbacks to carry around but if you want to keep it to flex take the hardcover

Such a good book. Just started book 2 this week. There's a deep sadness and yearning through it.

So it goes