I’ve seen some comments on my YouTube channel from some folks saying they rarely read, or quite possibly have never read a book, both of which are obviously fine. You can get through life not reading books, or not doing a lot of things—painting, hunting, whatever—and that doesn’t make you any less of a person (I’m saying this because I know there are elitist types out there (not me) who would laugh at someone for not reading). Although I would recommend reading a few books in different genres (fiction, non-fiction) because it helps open the mind to new ideas, new words, maybe new experiences. And some are just plain fun to read!
(Just to get off topic for a sec: reading and writing, at least from my perspective, are and never have been about looking or coming off smart, or being pretentious. For me, it’s about the joy of reading whatever you’re interested in at the moment, with learning being the unintended byproduct that you naturally get from it. I’m not one of those people to show off my massive book collection (I don’t have one anyway, as every book I’ve ever read eventually ends up in the trash or donated, except for all the manga I purchased around 2018 or so, I still have those.))
Since my first book (still working on it) is unconventional and avant-garde, and it organically and unintentionally splices together a bunch of different elements and genres—New Weird, Metafictional, Second-Person (“You”), Ergodic / Interactive fiction, (Cosmic) Horror, Comedy, some Science Fiction and Fantasy—I thought I’d create this post as a way for folks to at least get an idea of what my book will be like, since it’s far from the traditional prose. Well, it does have a good amount of traditional narrative, but I can’t say anymore than that without spoiling things, in terms of where or the amount of certain elements that appear in the book.
Go In Blind if you wish! You don’t have to read anything to get ready for my book. You don’t need to do homework. And more importantly: you don’t need a degree. My book is written in the same casual, conversational style that you’ll find in my videos, or in my posts here on my website! The book is accessible. Yes, it’s a smart book, there are a lot of original, (high) concepts and ideas, I play with book structure and mechanics, and there’s a ton of new lore totally unrelated to anything on my channel. But it’s not a pretentious “look at all these fancy words I can write” type of book, if you know what I mean. Just look at this post or any other here on my website, or how I talk to the viewer in my videos, and you’ll get a good indication of my writing style (spelling and grammatical errors aside, as I don’t always proofread my posts here, since this isn’t a news site).
Or prepare your mind! Because my book is unconventional, avant-garde at times, and plays or breaks conventional book structure and mechanics at various points, it could be a turn off if you’re not used to it, or maybe confusing if you’ve never read the types of books or genres I mentioned above. I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s not academic, like I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Therefore, you could benefit from reading some of the other books mentioned below in preparation for my book. But again, it’s not a requirement. But if you do happen to buy my book when it comes out, and you find yourself scratching your head and not understanding certain aspects of it, don’t say I didn’t warn you! ;)
So whether you are a new reader that has never read a book before, or a seasoned one that’s not read the type of books I mentioned above, I put together the list below of books and movies that I’ve read that have inspired and influenced me when I was younger, as well as books I haven’t read (but should one day) that are similar to mine.
The Books – My “Big 4”
Below are the four authors and their books or stories that I heavily enjoyed and which inspired me long before I started writing this first book of mine (which I never thought or planned to write, just like my YouTube channel).
- “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams for the humor, absurdity, and some Sci-Fi elements. This is the first in a trilogy, but reading this first one is good enough.
- Any story by H.P. Lovecraft for the cosmic horror and ambiguity, where much is left up to the imagination. You can’t go wrong with any of his works, many if not all can be found online for free (because they’re old and past copyright, and he has no estate like Tolkien). Notable highlights include: Pickman’s Model, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow Out of Time, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Dagon, The Rats in the Walls, The Colour Out of Space, The Music of Erich Zann, Herbert West Reanimator, The Nameless City, The Statement of Randolph Carter. Or do what I did, and buy the massive blue completed works edition.
- Any Lone Wolf book by Joe Dever for the second-person (“You”) perspective where you are the main character, and for the interactive, game-book experience. It’s a choose your own adventure type of book, where you flip ahead to a certain paragraph or page to continue the story based on choices you make. My book isn’t like this, but there are some elements that I’ve organically incorporated. Any book will do, too: Flight from the Dark, Fire on the Water, The Jungle of Horrors… there’s like 32 of them! I think I read six. I don’t remember, it was way back in the mid 80s!
- Stinger and/or Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. Stinger for some creature-feature body horror type stuff similar to the Alien movies, if I recall correctly. Swan Song for the post-apocalyptic aspect. I can’t recall if there’s much humor in these books. I read these also back in the 80s!
Books I’ve Never Read That Are Similar to Mine
I haven’t read any of the books below, but apparently they have certain story or design elements that are similar to mine:
- Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler. Apparently the “gold standard” of second-person metafictional storytelling, where the reader is an active character inside the book (I should read it some day)
- Jeff VanderMeer Annihilation / The Southern Reach Trilogy for surreal landscapes, psychological disorientation, and biological / cosmic horror (Probably should read these too)
- Mark Z. Danielewski House of Leaves for unconventional book layouts, meta-commentary, and a story that feels more like a puzzle or artifact than a typical narrative. (Again, another one I should read one day).
Recommended Movies
For the horror, comedy, absurdity, surrealism, and atmosphere:
- Alien
- Any Monty Python movie
- John Carpenter’s The Thing
- Office Space
- Ghostbusters
- Eraserhead (and while not a movie, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, especially Season 3 The Return)
- Evil Dead 2
Optional Video Games
I’ve been a gamer since the Atari 2600, and so naturally some gaming elements are sprinkled in my book, but I won’t say what or how. If you are someone that doesn’t play video games, that’s fine. But games like The Last of Us, Fallout, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are among my favorites, along with indie titles like Signalis, Darkwood, and the old classic Another World. Primarily for their atmosphere and storytelling elements. In a way, they are like playing a book.
Website: The SCP Foundation
How could I forget! There are quite a number of similarities (and perhaps a reference or two) between my writing style and this first book of mine, and the type of stuff you’ll find on the SCP Foundation website. Most notably the horror, bureaucratic comedy, and absurdity.
This Isn’t Homework!
You don’t need to read any of these books, watch any of these movies, or play any of these video games to read my book. You can easily look them all up, check out their synopses, and that’ll give you a good idea on what they’re all about. Or not! But aside from being unfamiliar with what my book will be like—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—more importantly: you’d be missing out on treating your mind to some really good books, and some good entertainment. And who knows where one book or movie might lead. That’s always a fun rabbit hole to go down. But that’s just like, my opinion man.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, not only do I need to feed my pet Mi-Go its daily human brain, but I also need to get back to working on the 3rd draft of my book, which is close to being done (the 3rd draft) and then correcting any mechanical and grammatical errors I’ve missed, doing the cover, printing a test copy, and getting it self-published and into your hands or device not long thereafter!
Cheers!