,
Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book

Innovative, unorthodox, unique, creative, odd, but still awesome books!
1

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 793,572 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.18 avg rating — 665,216 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.21 avg rating — 5,778,857 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.80 avg rating — 4,018,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.10 avg rating — 1,530,183 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.09 avg rating — 213,949 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.06 avg rating — 389,331 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.06 avg rating — 624,713 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.03 avg rating — 4,821,630 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,635,965 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.01 avg rating — 117,360 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.13 avg rating — 2,010,023 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.39 avg rating — 608,002 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.98 avg rating — 2,157,953 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.76 avg rating — 141,914 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.80 avg rating — 382,986 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.28 avg rating — 451,939 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.33 avg rating — 7,951 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.64 avg rating — 432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.99 avg rating — 905,736 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.11 avg rating — 129,409 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.02 avg rating — 50,331 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,227,098 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.01 avg rating — 275,893 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.91 avg rating — 33,928 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
3.93 avg rating — 423,638 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
3.87 avg rating — 980,637 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.13 avg rating — 815,561 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.46 avg rating — 100,962 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,983,643 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
4.12 avg rating — 186,525 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,154,259 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.61 avg rating — 460,894 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.78 avg rating — 248,951 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.64 avg rating — 777,931 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
4.02 avg rating — 121,878 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,998,524 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.16 avg rating — 354,904 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.55 avg rating — 269,789 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.04 avg rating — 317,022 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
4.01 avg rating — 179,149 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.25 avg rating — 106,165 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
3.87 avg rating — 28,631 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.17 avg rating — 60,599 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.86 avg rating — 202,019 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
3.92 avg rating — 47,576 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,545,267 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.41 avg rating — 6,602 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,687,414 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.19 avg rating — 585,627 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
3.57 avg rating — 636,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.02 avg rating — 113,577 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.77 avg rating — 375,954 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.95 avg rating — 1,789,523 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.84 avg rating — 229,158 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,091,018 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
4.11 avg rating — 578,223 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.85 avg rating — 916,645 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
4.09 avg rating — 102,809 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
3.43 avg rating — 576,532 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
4.16 avg rating — 261,711 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.09 avg rating — 536,039 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.06 avg rating — 286,643 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
4.15 avg rating — 449,926 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.20 avg rating — 796,714 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.76 avg rating — 115,663 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
4.26 avg rating — 89,087 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.91 avg rating — 78,146 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.12 avg rating — 70,210 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.10 avg rating — 1,005,784 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.65 avg rating — 31,565 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.68 avg rating — 13,923 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.13 avg rating — 227,434 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.99 avg rating — 154,544 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
4.07 avg rating — 18,482 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.65 avg rating — 168,565 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.44 avg rating — 34,636 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.10 avg rating — 570,187 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.72 avg rating — 23,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,162,380 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.18 avg rating — 50,162 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.97 avg rating — 136,780 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.15 avg rating — 356,703 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.25 avg rating — 277,012 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.58 avg rating — 265,896 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,772,278 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.89 avg rating — 185,424 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
3.89 avg rating — 342,000 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
3.89 avg rating — 380,861 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.75 avg rating — 427,024 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.96 avg rating — 24,251 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.46 avg rating — 7,505 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.92 avg rating — 3,762,587 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.25 avg rating — 846,603 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
4.10 avg rating — 515,611 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.83 avg rating — 186,277 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.59 avg rating — 245,095 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.13 avg rating — 121,307 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.16 avg rating — 294,313 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
4.36 avg rating — 10,296,130 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
1,120 books · 1,746 voters · list created February 18th, 2010 by deleted user.
749 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


T 748 books
36 friends
Qualgar 173 books
4 friends
Antoine 949 books
177 friends
Sarah 89 books
31 friends
Linda 2370 books
112 friends
Marlene 751 books
346 friends
Maia 276 books
11 friends
J10 270 books
4 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Bookman (new)

Bookman Which of these are "children's"? I was quite surprised to see the list when I looked under "children's" because there are some books there that are very much NOT for children.


message 2: by Alix (new)

Alix Epstein some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here.


message 3: by Jacob (new)

Jacob The only thing that J.D. was experimenting with when he wrote Catcher in The Rye, was new ways to make high school students waste their time.


message 4: by [deleted user] (new)

"Ulysses" obviously deserves the number 1 spot


message 5: by Leslie (new)

Leslie This is my favorite category of books. It's hard to define, but I'll take anyone's suggestions- because that's just more ideas for my 'to read' list!


message 6: by Carrie (new)

Carrie P I couldn't finish #1 because I couldn't get past the rape scene of minors. I even tried watching a midnight showing of the movie but fell asleep, although mostly because of the booze I'd consumed prior. What little I did read of Burgess' "experimental" vocabulary & his premise of "experimenting" bad behavior out was "interesting", to say the least.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Alix wrote: "some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here."

I agree...


message 8: by Danail (new)

Danail Hristov The End of the Jesus Era correlates with tags: creative, history, innovative, non-fiction, odd, religion, science, series, unique, unorthodox.

An honest search for a path to God reveals the shocking findings...
... The study includes author's autobiography, stories from his life experience as a zealous Christian, and some observations on Christianity, gained over 70 years.

The book, which is intended to be the first of a series, was recently published.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listin...
http://www.bookfinder4u.com/IsbnSearc...
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/49...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trk...
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Sea...


message 9: by Paul (new)

Paul Thoresen I can't believe how many WWII books there are on every list


message 10: by Juan (last edited Mar 26, 2014 10:05AM) (new)

Juan Booklovinglady wrote:


Alix wrote: "some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here."
I agree...


I agree...


message 11: by Melanie (new)

Melanie Page Alix wrote: "some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here."

Definitely.


message 12: by Taylor (new)

Taylor Melanie wrote: "Alix wrote: "some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here."

Definitely."


Agreed: Life of Pi? I'm actually pretty disappointed with a lot of the books on this list.


message 13: by Melanie (new)

Melanie Page Agreed: Life of Pi? I'm actually pretty disappointed with a lot of th..."

Life of Pi is more like a fairy tale than experimental. There are certain publishers people should be looking at, like FC2, Coffee House Press, and FSG.


message 14: by Daniel (new)

Daniel Some of these books are only experimental if you've read nothing that's actually experimental.


message 15: by Melanie (new)

Melanie Page I'm going to add a bunch! I can totally do that!


message 16: by Paul (new)

Paul Bowes Checked for duplicates: 3 books removed.

I'd love someone to explain to me how 'Catcher in the Rye' is in any sense 'experimental'.

Another list rendered useless by being set up but not curated to remove spurious additions.


message 17: by Leo (last edited May 28, 2016 10:30PM) (new)

Leo Walsh Seems to me that these books aren't that experimental. The top of the list are transgressive, not experimental. Experiemntal works play with language and expectation.

And then, some light-weights that you can polish off in an evening show up. Like, for instance "The Eyre Affair."

Any serious list of experimental fiction would include heavyweights like "Finnegans Wake," "Ulysses," "The Waves," "To the Lighthouse," "Foucault's Pendulum," Name of the Rose," "JR" "Mason & Dixon," and "Gravity's Rainbow."

Those books take work to read. Because they play with both a novel's form and language itself. Some are dang-near impossible to read. For instance, I think I'll be 70 before I finally crack "Finnegans Wake," which I've been reading off and on since my thirties.


message 18: by Ben (new)

Ben S Paul wrote: "Checked for duplicates: 3 books removed.

I'd love someone to explain to me how 'Catcher in the Rye' is in any sense 'experimental'.

Another list rendered useless by being set up but not curated t..."

The Catcher in the Rye is not exactly experimental, but it is on this list because it isn't a typical novel, for these reasons: The slang it is written in was very edgy at the time, it frequently uses passive voice, and most subtle but undoubtedly most important-the novel is entirely inseparable from its narrator. While people may dismiss Holden Caulfieldas as whiny and annoying, if you analyze his character carefully you will find that he is a unique and brilliantly written character who makes this book that would otherwise be pointless have real worth and significance. It ain't a classic for nothing.


message 19: by James (new)

James Luna pmsl@ Mein Kampf
The man was totally misunderstood in his time.


message 20: by Serenity (new)

Serenity Forward Alix wrote: "some people are playing a little fast and loose with the word "experimental" here."

True


message 21: by Erin (new)

Erin How is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on this list??? It is the quintessential children’s adventure novel — absolutely nothing experimental!

I also don’t see how Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, The Hunger Games, Romeo and Juliet and others make any sense on this list, and that is only the first page...


message 22: by Erin (new)

Erin Even Pride and Prejudice? Okay, wow, either some people really misunderstood what this list was for or, as the someone who posted this list on ListChallenges put it, modern readers apparently think anything not written about vampires is experimental. =P


message 23: by Caroline (new)

Caroline Page I find it funny how there are three books that share pretty much the exact plot right by each other: Breakthrough by Ken Grimwood, The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Currently they're all right by each other on the list 69 to 72. Since Breakthrough by Ken Grimwood was the first to be written, it should be the only one of the three on the list. Flowers for Algernon was the very last to be written, and the worst in my opinion. I have no idea why it's on this list, and how in the hell did that book sell over 5 million copies? The author must have priced his book for 1 cent and bought 5 million copies and then upped the price, ha, ha.


back to top