Nominations for November 2025 > Likes and Comments
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I'm not sure what you mean by "interactive" in post 1 above. If you're looking for suggestions or nominations, I've been meaning to give The Monsters We Forgot: Volume 1 a try. It's the first in a series of seven that is still producing and which I have heard good things about. Tim Jeffreys has a story in it. I've read two other things by him and really liked both.Another idea is if we are trying to get things started back up, we could read an anthology series of undisputed bizarro classics, just so we all have a common base from which to set out from. In that respect Eraserhead Press came out with a Bizarro starter kit series many years ago, differentiated from one another by four different colors: red, orange, blue, and purple. Three of those are still available on Kindle, but they're rather pricy: $12.99 each. Not sure if people want to drop that much cash on this, though I'd be willing to for one of these classics.
The Bizarro Starter Kit (Red) by Brian Allen Carr
The Bizarro Starter Kit (Blue)
The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange)
Yes, I think we should take suggestions and vote as a group. The Wonderland Book Awards series is too limited and the group read probably wasn't interesting for those who had already read the randomly chosen book.My mistake.
I'm happy to see some messages here! I was afraid no one would reply. I'll leave the topic open for a little while to get as many suggestions as possible before setting up the poll.
I thought your Wonderland Book Awards series a good idea. Anything that puts a quality bizarro book up as a group read, as your idea did, should work if the group is actually interested in reading bizarro fiction. Among the almost 600 members here, you would think we would have at least five or ten willing to read a bizarro book with others. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe of the 600 members here, three hundred look at their GoodReads accounts once a month or more often, the other 300 less often than monthly. (I've been considering culling some dead wood, booting members from the group who haven't logged into GR, the entire site, for a year or more, as a start, for example. I do that in other groups I moderate.) Of those 300 marginally active members, perhaps only 100 read the members messages we have been sending. Of those marginally aware 100 members, I suspect, only ten or maybe fifteen actually go to the group homepage to explore further at any time during the month. And 10 of those let's say 13 members are more committed to some other group, like Literary Horror or Weird Fiction, or something, and would read their group read before a bizarro one. Leaving at most 3 members willing to seriously consider the monthly group read. Whatever it may be.
This is the dynamic I think we contend against. So please don't blame your Wonderland Series initiative. I think it was a great idea, certainly as good as pretty much any other. What's the solution? I haven't figured that out yet.
That makes sense but it's a bit depressing 🫠 However, if we find good books and discussions even with only a few fellow readers, I'm in! It's been a week since I wrote the first message. I think we can consider we're going to be at least the three of us if we can choose something that everyone wants to read!
Danger Slater is among my favorite authors so I will always be in board for a group read of his! Out of his newest works, which one(s) would you like to read @Christopher?
And I've never read any Starter Kit so I could go with one of those as well.
I'm not suggesting anything this month to give the group time to get back on track.
I'll set up a poll in a few days!
Anyone who wants to add a suggestion is welcome!
Is there a list of books already read?
Hi! I’m new here 😊 I’d love to join your group reads — I’m open to anything you’d recommend!Just a small note:
I live in Poland and have limited access to physical copies unless they’re translated into Polish (buying abroad and shipping gets really expensive).
I’m also in the process of digitalizing my library — moving around with ~1000 books is… let’s say, a challenge. 😅
So if possible, I’d really appreciate recommendations that are available in ebook or Kindle format. Thanks so much!
@Kate: Basically, no. The group hasn't been very active lately. We've read (almost) all the winners of the Wonderland Book Awards, a couple CM3's and Genocide on the Infinite Express by Kevin Sweeney. The other previous reads were more on the splatterpunk side and we just dropped that genre from our group because it's no longer one of our core focuses. @Eliza: I live in France and I have the same problem with physical copies as you do. Thanks for the warning! I just checked and the starter kits aren't available here in France so it's probably your case in Poland too?
Seb wrote: "@Kate: Basically, no. The group hasn't been very active lately. We've read all the winners of the Wonderland Book Awards, a couple CM3's and Genocide on the Infinite Express by Kevin Sweeney. The o..."If something isn’t available in paper in France, it’s definitely not available in Poland. I can guarantee that 😅 Just for context — a lot of readers in Poland are quite comfortable reading in English and use Kindle/ebooks/audiobooks regularly, so there’s no real pressure to stick to Polish translations (though of course, not everyone does). In Poland, you can get mostly the mainstream stuff in paper, and even that often comes with a delay unless it’s a big name like King.
Weird fiction is generally much easier to find and access — it’s still niche, but definitely more recognized and widely published than bizarro. You can find quite a lot of it digitally or even in translation, and we actually have a few Polish authors writing in that vein too. So while bizarro is pure underground chaos, weird fiction has at least managed to carve out its own little corner in the literary world. That’s why I rely mostly on what’s available online — it’s both cheaper and instantly accessible.
Again, I’d love to ask — maybe we could pick something you’ve been meaning to read for a while but never quite got around to? Or even a book you’d like to revisit for a reread? ❤️
The only small condition on my side is that it’s available in a digital format.
I’ll check out what you wanna read. Count me in.
Kate Victoria wrote: "Is there a list of books already read?"Kate, the bookshelf link from the group homepage is a one-to-one listing of the books we have read in this group as group reads. Every book listed there was a group or buddy read at some point in time. Bookshelf book listings likely have a discussion topic somewhere in the group, probably in the group discussion archives. A few books that were group reads no one read, or at least no one discussed. Therefore, there is not a discussion for every book, but for about 85% of them there are. Discussion topics never close. If you read a group read book years later, you can always add a post to the relevant topic. If I read the book too, I'll probably remember it and engage with most any new comment on it.
I didn't remove any splatterpunk or extreme book from our bookshelf, and hope they don't get deleted. Unless there's a demand for one, we probably won't do another. But the ones we did are still a part of our history and therefore (in my opinion) need to stay. I have never deleted any other member's comments posted here at the group. I don't believe in censorship, don't see deleting someone else's post as my right, and never would, unless the comment were highly objectionable (probably meaning hurtful). I've moved a few posts to a more relevant topic, but deleting one? That hasn't happened yet.
Welcome Eliza! On the subject of physical books with no corresponding eBooks, we try to avoid featuring those as group reads here because we recognize that many members only read eBooks. I'd say we're 80-90% successful at that. On occasion a book with no corresponding eBook will seems so exceptional we go ahead anyway though. But off the top of my head I can't remember an occasion yet when that was specifically the case.
Thanks Dan & Seb!I’ll throw a couple ideas out:
“The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre” by Cho Yeeun
“Mantis” by Matthew Clarke
“Junkman” by Christopher Bevard
“Dad jokes” by Justin Hunter
“Cannibal Nuns from Outer Space” by Duncan Bradshaw
Not 100% sure these are classified as “bizarro”, but they all seem strange and absurd from the synopses.
Well, I don't know about Cho Yeeun's and Bevard's but all the other books are at least mentioned on Bizarro Central so they totally qualify!Since Bizarro Central is just starting to become active again, many books are missing, so it's possible the two others qualify as well. I don't know.
Thanks for the nominations! I'm happy to see the variety ^^
Has anyone read You Always Try to Kill Me in Your Dreams yet?
That Bizarro Central is quite a website. How have I missed it up until now? Thanks for mentioning it, Seb.
Hey! I'll set up the poll tomorrow (10/24). I'll first check the availability, to ensure that everyone can access the nominees (so European members such as Eliza and I won't be excluded from the group read due to some technicality).
If you want to add ideas or to amends previous ones, it's time to do so!
@Dan Bizarro Central has been around for a long time but has been inactive these past few years. It seems to be getting back on track.
Not me, @David. Would you like to nominate it?
Big thanks to @Seb for setting up the poll! 🙏💀Looking at the results (and the size of some of these books), maybe we could go with two reads per month — depending on how the votes turn out? It could keep things flexible but still give everyone time to enjoy both without rushing.
I think starting with one monthly group read is a good pace. A lot of readers are members of more than one group and may be committed to other group reads.However, I intend to create two threads: the main one for the winning book of the month and another for all the losers. This way, if anyone wants to read some of the other nominated books and do buddy reads or simply share thoughts about them they'll have the opportunity!
Come on people: last chance to vote for our November group read! The poll will close soon!
Up!Just saying — a few of these are already sitting on my Kindle, quietly judging me for not opening them yet. Can't wait to read them :)
After a few months break, I suggest we start a new Bizarro group read. We can resume the Wonderland Book Awards series if anyone wants to, but it would be fun to do a more interactive read.
Bring your suggestions, and we'll vote on them!