Books that feel unreal

[Oasisboi]

This book right here was one of the most magical reads I have ever gotten my hands on. Some of the plot and logic were so unique and yet similar. I want to buy it again to see if I get the same fascination. I highly recommend you read it if you hadn't. magical snow is one of my favorite things ever!!!! Everything is described perfectly and I just barely remember enough details to get imagery but not enough to remember what happened. Its so nostalgic and it doesn't feel real.

 

[Oasisboi]

Another very nostalgic one from when I was very very young. It was about a lady that started a cafe out of her van I think. I read it at least 4 times a week. It was so soothing, the art style, the colors, the soft language. This was my favorite book for a very very long time.

 

[№56]

View attachment 40659 This book right here was one of the most magical reads I have ever gotten my hands on. Some of the plot and logic were so unique and yet similar. I want to buy it again to see if I get the same fascination. I highly recommend you read it if you hadn't. magical snow is one of my favorite things ever!!!! Everything is described perfectly and I just barely remember enough details to get imagery but not enough to remember what happened. Its so nostalgic and it doesn't feel real.

I've never heard of this book, but it reminds me of The Neverending Story. I've never seen the movie adaptation, but I did read the book as a young kid and the esoteric/allegorical imagery made a very deep impression on me despite the fact that I've forgotten most of the plot. My recollection of actually reading the book feels like a dream.
Another book I read at around the same time was The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Poe. It reads like a cursed book from a horror story. Most of it is pretty unremarkable, at least by Poe's standards, but the last ten pages or so turn into a bizarre inexplicable nightmare. Until I re-read it a couple months ago there was a part of me that thought I had only imagined the ending, but it was real.
There are more books I remember this way, mostly young adult fantasy stories that were in our school library, but I've forgotten the titles as well as the stories. There was one about wizards who could only be defeated by pouring soapy water in them, and another about a boy who got sent back in time to WWII and teamed up with an RAF pilot reincarnated into the body of a teddy bear to stop a insect demon with the face of Hitler.

 

[Taleisin]

This one. It feels like a book I dreamt about but then I find it on a bookshelf in real life. It was the thing that originally inspired this username.

Also anything by Charles De Lint

 

[floozy]

 

[Orlando Smooth]

I guess I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "unreal," but this book right here takes the cake as the most out there thing I've ever read. It doesn't seem possible to discern whether the author wholeheartedly believes in conspiracy theories, or is using fiction to mock them relentlessly. Wikipedia describes it as being "satirical" but that seems far too trite of a descriptor. The plot is non-linear, to say the least, and includes many instances where you are given the perspective of characters such as a sentient dolphin, an artificial intelligence, and some detectives investigating a bombing.

It's truly difficult to describe the book (which is really a series), it's something that really has to be experienced to understand. Certainly helped me integrate some of the psychedelic states I've experienced by understanding it's possible to simultaneously take something seriously and also laugh at it or relentlessly mock it.

 

[Xovi]

Gothic Violence was a weird book, it read like a teenager's fantasy while at the same time having scenes that felt genuinely unreal. It's an edgy book, but that's my guilty pleasure so thats fine by me.

 

[Jessica3cho雪血⊜青意]

I'm going to continue to recommend Piers Anthony forever, I think. His work drug me head first into the world of whimsical fantasy and SciFi. His books tend to have some very adult themes, yet they are still filled with a child-like blend of ideas.
In the Xanth series, puns are turned literal in a fantasy world (e.g. a Nightmare is literally a magical horse that comes to you in your sleep and tries to destroy you with dark magic)
In the Incarnations of Immortality series, we see traditionally mythical figures (such as Mars, Death, Satan, Father Time) as temporal job positions, wherein someone succeeds a predecessor in some fashion related to the position. Chaos ensues and the many events of the world are explained as people attempt to use these positions for their own purposes.
In the Apprentice Adept series, we see a blend of SciFi and Fantasy as two parallel universes exist simultaneously, one utilizing science and one wafting in magic, and the eventual chaos of people and creatures attempt to cross sides.
Plus many other great series or one-off's he has. Very classic fantasy and scifi elements as his novels date all the way back to 1967.

 

[Taleisin]

I'm going to continue to recommend Piers Anthony forever, I think. His work drug me head first into the world of whimsical fantasy and SciFi. His books tend to have some very adult themes, yet they are still filled with a child-like blend of ideas.
In the Xanth series, puns are turned literal in a fantasy world (e.g. a Nightmare is literally a magical horse that comes to you in your sleep and tries to destroy you with dark magic)
In the Incarnations of Immortality series, we see traditionally mythical figures (such as Mars, Death, Satan, Father Time) as temporal job positions, wherein someone succeeds a predecessor in some fashion related to the position. Chaos ensues and the many events of the world are explained as people attempt to use these positions for their own purposes.
In the Apprentice Adept series, we see a blend of SciFi and Fantasy as two parallel universes exist simultaneously, one utilizing science and one wafting in magic, and the eventual chaos of people and creatures attempt to cross sides.
Plus many other great series or one-off's he has. Very classic fantasy and scifi elements as his novels date all the way back to 1967.

It sounds like you should read Terry Pratchet's Discworld

 

[Jessica3cho雪血⊜青意]

It sounds like you should read Terry Pratchet's Discworld

Looks good! I'll check it out!

 

[Taleisin]

Looks good! I'll check it out!

The way you read discworld is pick a character/ group of characters, then read the books related to them in chronological order. There are so many interwoven storylines that it's impossible to follow in release order, but each "set" will be found easily listed online. I'd suggest the Death books, or the Witches books first.

 

[Itubaino]

I read the Steppenwolf of Hermann Hesse and I personally felt in a totally unreal kind of state, mainly in its ending, really crazy stuff

 

[darth shart]

The Book of the New Sun quadrilogy by Gene Wolfe comes to mind. They are only printed now as two omnibuses (omnibi?): Shadow and Claw, Sword and Citadel.

Enriching and surreal experience overall but I'm not convinced that Wolfe is some kind of 4D fucking hyper genius like some seem to be, but maybe there were just too many references over my head. The references I did get were neat - there are several made up Latin or Greek portmanteaus, and every other character is named after a Catholic saint in a way that usually foreshadows some subtlety or flaw.

The conceit of the novels is that they are the memoir of a politician in the distant, Ninth World-like future, and as such the story is often purposefully hard to parse. The intradiegetic narrator contradicts himself often in a way that Wolfe seems to have inserted intentionally, and in a way I am not used to reading in fictionalized memoirs but have often seen in non-fiction ones. The experience is not unlike trying to suss the truth out of a politician of the real world.

Additionally, Wolfe shoots high with very big themes and very heady asides that often left my head swimming and gave me cause to double back and reread; indeed, the books are obviously written to be read more than once.

Anyway, it's not for everyone, and honestly I'd rate it below a lot of the praise I usually see, but I do think it was a fair use of my time overall and I got something out of it. Maybe others will love it.

Including attachment of the old cover of book 1 just because it looks cool.

 

[RealTomCruise]

I'm going to continue to recommend Piers Anthony forever, I think. His work drug me head first into the world of whimsical fantasy and SciFi. His books tend to have some very adult themes, yet they are still filled with a child-like blend of ideas.
In the Xanth series, puns are turned literal in a fantasy world (e.g. a Nightmare is literally a magical horse that comes to you in your sleep and tries to destroy you with dark magic)
In the Incarnations of Immortality series, we see traditionally mythical figures (such as Mars, Death, Satan, Father Time) as temporal job positions, wherein someone succeeds a predecessor in some fashion related to the position. Chaos ensues and the many events of the world are explained as people attempt to use these positions for their own purposes.
In the Apprentice Adept series, we see a blend of SciFi and Fantasy as two parallel universes exist simultaneously, one utilizing science and one wafting in magic, and the eventual chaos of people and creatures attempt to cross sides.
Plus many other great series or one-off's he has. Very classic fantasy and scifi elements as his novels date all the way back to 1967.

I remember very vaguely reading On a Pale Horse and I think A Spell for Chameleon as a kid, it's very dreamlike trying to remember them and I thought I made up parts of Xanth in my imagination until now. I've always liked whimsical and twists on standard fantasy and should go back to reread them.

 

[SomaSpice]

Haven't read it, nor do I plan to, but I have no doubts "Ass Goblins of Auschwitz" fits the bill, though in the negative sense.


Just by reading a quick synopsis one can understand that this book's sole purpose is to be as extreme, grotesque, and dumb as possible, but what I find unreal is that someone attached their actual name to this book and published it.

Like, imagine being that guy. The guy who wrote fucking ASS GOBLINS OF AUSCHWITZ.

 

[SomaSpice]

Also, neuromancer is really cool. Yeah, we all know its the father of the cyberpunk genere, but its crazy how much it seems to have influenced the aesthetic values of computer scientists and technologists moving forwards. The book was published in 1984, yet the internet as we know it (TCP/IP) was merely born in 1983. The combination of the novel's forward-thinkingness and impressionist style makes it feel like you're being presented with the very archetype for what the world is becoming.

 

[Jessica3cho雪血⊜青意]

Haven't read it, nor do I plan to, but I have no doubts "Assgoblins from Auschwitz" fits the bill, though in the negative sense.

View attachment 42167
Just by reading a quick synopsis one can understand that this book's sole purpose is to be as extreme, grotesque, and dumb as possible, but what I find unreal is that someone attached their actual name to this book and published it.

View attachment 42170

Like, imagine being that guy. The guy who wrote fucking ASSGOBLINS FROM AUSCHWITZ.

SPOILER ALERT

 

[№56]

Haven't read it, nor do I plan to, but I have no doubts "Assgoblins from Auschwitz" fits the bill, though in the negative sense.

View attachment 42167
Just by reading a quick synopsis one can understand that this book's sole purpose is to be as extreme, grotesque, and dumb as possible, but what I find unreal is that someone attached their actual name to this book and published it.

View attachment 42170

Like, imagine being that guy. The guy who wrote fucking ASSGOBLINS FROM AUSCHWITZ.

What kind of person can read Ass Goblins of Auschwitz cover to cover, rate it 4/5 stars, and then still feel the need to self-censor the words "Nazi" and "ass"?

 

[Cobalt]

The weirdest thing I've ever read is probably Imperial Dogmatic Spherical Holes. Kinda went down the Lomack rabbit hole, shits weird.

 

[Chao Tse-Tung]

This. This is probably my favorite piece of literature. It's fully my comfy-book, as weird as that sounds. It's the warmth of the Zone, I guess.

View attachment 40676
I guess I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "unreal," but this book right here takes the cake as the most out there thing I've ever read. It doesn't seem possible to discern whether the author wholeheartedly believes in conspiracy theories, or is using fiction to mock them relentlessly. Wikipedia describes it as being "satirical" but that seems far too trite of a descriptor. The plot is non-linear, to say the least, and includes many instances where you are given the perspective of characters such as a sentient dolphin, an artificial intelligence, and some detectives investigating a bombing.

It's truly difficult to describe the book (which is really a series), it's something that really has to be experienced to understand. Certainly helped me integrate some of the psychedelic states I've experienced by understanding it's possible to simultaneously take something seriously and also laugh at it or relentlessly mock it.

RAW was a Discordian, like, unironically one of the founders along with Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill. The whole trilogy might make absolutely zero sense without prior knowledge of Eris-esoteric.

For some insight into what the hell it was all about, read Principia Discordia and have a skim through Historia Discordia, I promise, it makes everything cloudily clear.