I’m just as happy reading a book if it is a standard novel as I am reading a book with less-common formatting if they are both excellent, but there is something a little extra engaging for me as a reader and an editor when an author takes an unexpected risk or two when it comes to presenting their story.
Here are my top five books with unusual formats.
It Chooses You by Miranda July
This book is almost entirely made up of interviews and photos and yet it has a gentle plot line running through it. I think the interviews work really well in this text because they are all with people who are strangers to July, so we get a less filtered introduction to the people and her interactions with them.
This book was a bit of a procrasta-project for July who was meant to be writing a film script and instead found herself intrigued by the people who were still listing things, often esoteric items, in a hardcopy classifieds publication. So she went and interviewed them and took their photos. A fun idea and easy to read.
Birds Art Life Death by Kyo Maclear
Maclear is also an illustrator so this book is full of her drawings, as well as photos, and it is divided into the seasons of a year where she was processing grief, wandering through nature and spending nurturing time with a musical friend. Because Maclear used nature and long walks as a way to work through her grief, it is lush and complementary to have the images alongside her writing.
We are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
Sure this is a book of essays, which isn’t revolutionary, but one of the essays is in the form of an application by Irby to the TV show The Bachelor and it is hilarious and skewering and a great introduction to Irby’s sense of humour and life. I sometimes pick the book up just to read that chapter and have a chuckle.
Fun House by Alison Bechdel
Is it cheating to include a graphic novel? I don’t care. This was the first graphic novel that I ever read and the reason why I am including it here is that it is an illustrated memoir, which these days are not completely uncommon, but in 2006 it was ambitious and rebellious. The subtitle is ‘a family tragicomic’, which is perfect.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
This is probably one of the best-known examples of using unusual formatting in a novel, but still one of my favourites. The whole novel is a standard text but one of the chapters is written as a series of PowerPoint slides. I remember initially being a bit annoyed by the shift in format, but by the end of the chapter I was convinced that it was an apt way for the character to share their story. And I’ve thought about it now and then over the decade since I read it.
If you are a writer working on a project with a less-than-conventional style that you’re trying to get right, this editor would love to hear from you.