Seven Quirky Books You Simply Cannot Miss

If you're a fan of off-the-beaten-path literature, then you can't go wrong with these quirky offerings. In fact, they're so good they absolutely cannot be missed. Get thee to a bookstore today!

1. Dina's Book: Written by Norwegian Herbjorg Wassmo, this historical novel is simply breathtaking. It's filled with intrigue, suspense, the supernatural, sex, and violence - all set in pre-Crimean War Norway. You'll learn Norwegian history and lose yourself in the landscapes. You'll crave Dina, even if she's dangerous to desire. Norwegian translates well into English so the English version is true to the original. Creative writers: Wassmo's style may revolutionize your own composition. ISBN: 1559703482

2. Waiting for Godot: It's a standard in literature classes so maybe you've read it, or at least heard of it. It's a play, but the script reads like a book...a very confusing, absurd book. And that's the point of it, to be as absurd and confounding as possible. Samuel Beckett can spin heads like nobody else, and he leaves you searching for meaning...meaning which more or less doesn't exist. ISBN: 0791097935

3. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman: Second only to Beckett in absurdity is Laurence Sterne, whose mid-18th century classic will make you delightfully dizzy. Underlining the pointlessness of autobiographies, Tristram is so caught in his own anecdotes that even as death's at his door, he's still trying to tie up loose ends of his own life story. With features like an entirely black page, there are surprises galore in this hefty tome. As the movie based on the book states, it's "a post-modern classic written before there was any modernism to be post about". ISBN: 048645648X

4. Girl, Interrupted: You may have seen the movie, but the book is substantially different, and a simple masterpiece. Conveying the "myth" of madness in teenagers in the 1960s, which we'd now call normal rebelliousness, Susanna Kaysen vividly describes her fellow patients and experiences in asylum. The fates of most "characters" are unlike the movie. Even "wicked" Lisa, famously played by Angelina Jolie, has an unexpected ending to her tale. ISBN: 0679746048

5.The Search for Joseph Tully: It starts with graphic torture in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition and gets more tense from there. This thriller is an absolute page-turner, and by the end you don't know who to trust or how to feel about anyone, the "hero" included. It's been out of print for a while, but you can track down used copies inexpensively on Amazon. Author: William H. Hallahan Amazon ASIN: B000NPT89G

6.The Mothman Prophecies: Ignore the movie, it was awful by comparison. This book is a philosophical mind-bender, telling the eerie tale of the Mothman sightings in West Virginia and Ohio in the 60s. The tale takes a terribly tragic turn, but not before chilling you to the bone with stories of monsters, UFOs, men in black, and other strange sightings. Even skeptics will be puzzled. John A. Keel presents his theories about the true origins of these phenomena, and he'll make you think deeply. ISBN: 0765341972

7.Undying Love: The True Story Of A Passion That Defied Death: Not for the squeamish! This is a true love story of the most horrific kind. Set in the romance of Key West, Ben Harrison - a masterful storyteller - relates the story of a disturbed German emigrant who falls for a dying Cuban beauty. After her death he exhumes her body, embalms her routinely, and lives with her as his "wife" for seven years. It's so creepy you'll struggle to believe it's real...but it is. ISBN: 0312978022Expand your mind and dinner table conversation potential with these unusual reads.Finally explore literature you may have heard about, but never got around to reading.Sometimes classics are well-hidden; discover gems in this article.Laurence Sterne's body was stolen after burial and sold to anatomists. But when recognized, it was secretly buried again. Centuries later when his graveyard was renovated, his skull was exhumed and buried elsewhere, leaving his body behind.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/139915/laurence_sternes_novel_the_life_and.htmlhttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/784545/waiting_for_godot_and_samuel_becketts.html