If I said I wasn’t a bit of an oddball, I’d be blatantly lying. And books are the perfect gifts for oddballs, because there are so many awesome odd, bizarre books out there that are just amazing. Here are just a few.

1 – John Dies at the End by David Wong

You all know I love this book (and I love the sequel even more) and so it’s really no surprise that it would pop up on this list. This book is absolutely absurd and full of penis jokes, but it is also just really entertaining and a whole lot more clever than it’s crassness would have you believe. It is quite a difficult book to explain, but it basically begins when two buddies take a drug called Soy Sauce which allows you to see and experience things beyond your own reality. It’s really awesome. Get it here: The Book Depository, Amazon.

 

2 – The Library at Mount Char  by Scott Hawkins

I read and reviewed this one recently and I can tell you that it’s one of my top books of the year. This is another book that’s really difficult to explain because it’s just so abstract. But it’s about a library that holds all the secrets to the universe which is overseen by a god. There are also librarians who each have a particular catalogue they are experts in and everything goes awry when the god disappears. It’s super good. And there’s lions. Get it here: The Book Depository, Amazon.

3 – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I think almost any book by Quirk Books would fit well on this particular list, but I think Miss Peregrine’s has that definite oddball quality to it. It’s full of creepy, creepy old pictures that the story (about creepy children with superpowers) develops around. But do understand that despite it’s marketing, this book is NOT a horror. It’s actually super adorable. Get it here: The Book Depository, Amazon.

4 – More Than This by Patrick Ness

Okay, what was this book about exactly? I can’t even put it into words, but it was really good. It’s one of those super bizarre life-after-death books where you never really know what’s going on. But it’s really good. It’s Patrick Ness, so you know it’s going to be good. Get it here: The Book Depository, Amazon.

 

5 – Railsea by China Mieville

I LOVE this book. I’ve raved about it before, and I am sure I will rave about it many more times. It is a retelling of Moby Dick only with giant carnivorous mole rats and trains instead of boats and whales. It also probably has my favourite description of the book’s setting I’ve ever read.

“Every railsea nation other than Streggeye, if it was discussed by many of the Streggeye-born trainsfolk, was, Sham noted, transduced. It was too big or small, too lax or strict, too mean, too gaudy, too plain, too foolishly munificent. Lands of all dimensions & governments met with disapproval. The scholarocracy of Rockvane was snootily intellectual. Cabigo, the quarrelsome federation of weak monarchies was quarrelsomely monarchist. The warlords who ran Kammy Hammy were too brutish. Clarion was governed by priests whose piety was too much, while far off Mornington needed a dose of religion. Manihiki, by far the most powerful city-state in the railsea, brashly threw its weight around with wartrains, the grumbles went. & the democracy of which it crowed so loud was a sham, they added, in hock to money. & on & on.”

Isn’t that just brilliant? yeah. It is. Get it here: The Book Depository, Amazon.

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Check out the other Bookmas posts on what to buy:

The Creature of the Night

The Witch/Wizard

The Artist

The Fairy Princess (or Prince)

The Leader of the Rebellion 

The Detective

The Dreamer

The Hipster

And all the Bookmas posts (including 2014) here.

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