,

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

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 766,070 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.18 avg rating — 639,951 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.20 avg rating — 5,400,262 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,868,902 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.10 avg rating — 1,475,717 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.06 avg rating — 376,851 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.09 avg rating — 198,541 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,855,648 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.02 avg rating — 4,499,365 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.02 avg rating — 111,117 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.06 avg rating — 606,637 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.14 avg rating — 432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,589,303 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.98 avg rating — 2,062,404 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.11 avg rating — 122,003 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.39 avg rating — 592,056 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.80 avg rating — 359,435 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.87 avg rating — 939,492 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.01 avg rating — 47,936 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.76 avg rating — 137,390 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,185,620 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.28 avg rating — 416,337 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.99 avg rating — 883,847 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.91 avg rating — 32,641 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.01 avg rating — 266,676 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
3.94 avg rating — 391,277 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
3.46 avg rating — 98,317 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.11 avg rating — 178,128 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,857,492 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.12 avg rating — 1,096,433 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,805,844 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.25 avg rating — 100,916 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.17 avg rating — 57,236 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.86 avg rating — 195,307 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.61 avg rating — 446,235 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.56 avg rating — 613,176 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,463,850 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.03 avg rating — 109,890 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.78 avg rating — 353,999 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.94 avg rating — 1,746,531 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,028,624 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.84 avg rating — 221,248 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.10 avg rating — 96,522 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.06 avg rating — 278,871 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
4.12 avg rating — 544,274 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.85 avg rating — 845,475 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.75 avg rating — 108,042 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
4.28 avg rating — 1,693,420 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
4.26 avg rating — 85,091 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.43 avg rating — 555,822 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.17 avg rating — 224,492 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.20 avg rating — 777,458 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.15 avg rating — 435,245 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.65 avg rating — 30,750 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.92 avg rating — 326,036 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
3.92 avg rating — 75,627 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
4.11 avg rating — 64,830 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.89 avg rating — 336,628 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
4.10 avg rating — 988,089 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 151,014 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.68 avg rating — 13,589 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.07 avg rating — 17,787 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.64 avg rating — 163,509 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
4.13 avg rating — 213,656 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.09 avg rating — 509,256 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
4.44 avg rating — 33,742 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
4.18 avg rating — 47,568 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.73 avg rating — 22,999 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,067,505 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.11 avg rating — 539,893 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.97 avg rating — 132,486 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
4.14 avg rating — 343,295 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.25 avg rating — 273,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.16 avg rating — 284,507 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.93 avg rating — 506,478 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.69 avg rating — 406,104 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.58 avg rating — 252,245 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
3.74 avg rating — 410,553 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.96 avg rating — 22,817 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.46 avg rating — 7,067 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.24 avg rating — 787,482 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.89 avg rating — 183,655 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.83 avg rating — 174,872 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.09 avg rating — 504,301 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.89 avg rating — 362,096 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
3.92 avg rating — 3,533,443 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.72 avg rating — 646 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
3.59 avg rating — 234,223 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.13 avg rating — 118,876 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.41 avg rating — 30,417 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,177,597 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
4.28 avg rating — 9,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.97 avg rating — 434,465 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,816,067 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,013,294 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.90 avg rating — 1,405,047 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.85 avg rating — 14,269 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
3.81 avg rating — 213,336 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.12 avg rating — 12,923 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.81 avg rating — 1,301,364 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
1,107 books · 1,719 voters · list created February 18th, 2010 by deleted user.
777 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


T 746 books
36 friends
Qualgar 173 books
4 friends
Antoine 949 books
177 friends
Sarah 89 books
31 friends
Linda 2318 books
113 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