Recs if you like If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler...

These are books that don't rush to impress you. They simmer while the author adds in the layers. They may confuse you or bore you at first - but if you give them time to cook you'll end up with a delicious meal of a book!

Always taking recommendations! If you are recommending a series - the layers need to come together by the end of the first book (not half way through the series).

Not all collections hold things you can touch. This one holds worlds that breathe, selves that dissolve, and realities that refuse to hold their shape. These are the fictions that live on the edge of what language can contain - and sometimes just beyond. Admission is free, through entry requires a signed waiver: the curator cannot be held responsible for any transformations that occur upon your exit. We welcome specimen recommendations!

Based on the list/book published in 2006, general editor Peter Boxall.

Bibliophilia at its best - books about books, readers, libraries, bookstores!

Books written in unconventional and experimental styles and formatting.

Books written in or featuring 2nd person POV

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that go past the July start date and match at least one of these title prompts: Periodic Table, Familial Terms, Rainbow of Words (also Joseph's coat), Numerical Titles, Titular Counting 5+, Pun in the Title, and First & Last Name in the Title. Recommendations welcome!

dreamy, surreal, reflective texts 🤍 composed of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and memoirs

this is a collection of books that contain more stories within their stories, almost like an endless corridor of doors that lead to more doors or an infinite matryoshka doll
(always open to suggestions!!)

the fragmentary novel is constructed of fragments or vignettes, typically following images, thoughts, and feelings over a sequential series of events. in a world of disruption, displacement, and of time being swallowed and spat out by the machines of capitalism and colonialism, the fragmentary novel offers an alternative structure.

title borrowed from jenny offill. recommendations welcome.

When character reads or listens to another’s person’s story or is told a longer tale about something which then affects that character in some way. The character needs to comment on reading or listening to the story and it needs to affect their action. The nested story needs to be significantly long. Bonus if there is multiple nested narratives. Epistolary novels where multiple character write to each other also count. (This list is still work in progress, suggestions welcome.)

a non-exhaustive collection of works

my favorite genre. elvia wilk’s essay is the best on what this genre is, but here’s an excerpt: “Weird knowledge does not deny the capacity of the human mind and body to produce knowledge, but it does not reduce the world to human subject experience either. Unlike science fiction—in which there is a rational explanation for everything—and fantasy—where magic explains it all—weirdness hovers between poles of explainability.”

Books that ignore the traditional way of telling a story. These books tell their stories in unexpected ways, through letters, transcripts, diaries, documents, text messages, or unconventional layouts.

books with an experimental structure or narrative choices, metafiction, oulipo, postmodernism, etc.

A list of ergodic books I've come across through time. Those books that go beyond words on a page and contain special elements and features that make reading a whole new experience!

Books that exhibit key traits of, or helped develop, the Postmodern literary movement, many of which are experiemental. Not including criticism or theory. Research trigger warnings before reading.

(Recommendations welcome)

Fixations and obsessions

Service95 Book Club Monthly Reads + more and more books from their lists :)

Books that contain a story inside the story