The List of 7
Gabriel shares this book from “the fellow who did Twin Peaks wrote an amazing story of horror, 19th spiritualism and mystery set in Victorian Era England. ”

Naked Lunch
“It’s got the roots of a sort of mutating, fluid Matrixy style”, one reader commented, albeit this is long before Keanu donned a modified cassock. Burroughs is truly a classic of modern literature.

Spider
Thom recommends this psychological thriller by Patrick McGrath involving insanity, alienation, and paranoia. “It’s difficult to put the book down once you’ve begun reading.”

American Gods
Neil Gaiman’s epic fantasy novel is filled with caustic wit and razor-sharp writing. “A brilliantly woven tale that explores and challenges age old myths and ideas.” quoth one reader.

Ender’s Game
“A must for sci-fi fans,” Marie writes. “who will be glued to the pages of the story of the child genius. Chock full of action and philosophical politics. Talk about a movie is in the works.”

England’s Hidden Reverse
Vital reading for fans of Coil, Current 93, and Nurse with Wound.

Geek Love
A bizarre story of human oddities; the genetically experimented children of the Binewskis. Definitely not for the squeamish.

One reader told us, “I am a particular fan of Richard Adams, of Watership Down fame, and while I enjoy Maia and Shardik a great deal, your regular readership may actually like Adams’ novel, The Girl in a Swing, more. Maia, however, is quite wonderful in my opinion. It’s just hard to find, being out of print.”

The Basic Eight
Aislinn wrote to us to tell us about this one by Daniel Handler. “Hilarious, clever and wry. A pretentious and precocius gang of high-school students who get up to mischief, including lots of absinthe imbibing.” She also recommended:

A Secret History
This novel, by Donna Tartt, is “A psychological thriller with beautifully atmospheric prose. Think Dead Poets Society but instead of English Lit, the students are studying Ancient Greek.”

Wicked
Gregory Maguire’s account of the life and times of “The Wicked Witch of the West”, and her point of view.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy
Tim Burton’s macabre shorts of odd little boys and girls. Gorgeous imagery.

Foucault’s Pendulum
A mindfuck of an opus magnum by a hyperintelligent authority on everything from the Knights Templar to James Joyce; built around a group of disgruntled metaphysics editors who invent an ultimate conspiracy that links everything from Freemasons to Qabalists to Brazilian voodoo (which is where Eco’s positively staggering intellectual prowess comes in) in a web that begs a question about the subversion of reality.

Best Tales of E.T.A Hoffman
Unfortunately, this bizarre German short story writer wound up being immortalized by Tchaikovsky’s trite adaptation of his nonsensical story “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” into the trite, nonsensical ballet, and his more disturbing, macabre works remain largely unknown, although he is an excellent example of both the literary gothic and German romantic styles.

Crash
This is the book that made J. G. Ballard a seminal figure in underground industrial literature because of its emphasis on the assimilation of pop culture icons, technology, and absolutely obscene sexuality. Most people know about Crash from the Cronenberg film, but the book is much more powerful.

Shit of God
It’s essentially a lyric book of all the snippets of “wisdom” culled from Ms. Galas’ various performances, dealing with AIDS, the Antichrist, Christian Fundamentalism, and it somehow manages to be hilarious at points.

Cinderella
In this updated version of the faery tale by Mizuno Junko, illustrated by the master of disturbing Japanese art (it’s been referred to as Powerpuff Girls on acid), Cinderella turns into a zombie for the ball and leaves behind an eyeball. Pretty much anything that Mizuno touches is worth looking at, such as her Hellbabies art collective. She showcases the most macabre cuteness since Edward Gorey.