Top ten list of the most fascinating books of the 20th century

1 - Codex Seraphinianus (1976-1978) by Luigi Serafini: a visual encyclopedia of an

unknown world, written in one of its languages, a thus-far undeciphered alphabetic writing.

2 - Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand: a classic dystopian novel about a fictional United
States where leading innovators refuse to be exploited by society.

3 - Naked Lunch (1959) by William S. Burroughs: a non-linear novel about drug-addiction.

4 - A Book from the Sky (aka An Analyzed Reflection of the End of This Century) (1988)
by Xu Bing: a set of books, panels and scrolls on which were printed thousands of
characters resembling real Chinese characters, all devoid of semantic content.

5 - Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of
Science (2008) by Richard Holmes: an account of experimental science at the end of the
1700s.

6 - Les revenentes (1972) by Georges Perec: a novel in which the letter "e" is the only
vowel used.

7 - Diaries (1910-1923) by Franz Kafka: the intimate thoughts of a literary genius.

8 - The Obscene Bird of Night (1970) by José Donoso (1924-1996): a novel that explores
the cyclical nature of life and death.

9 – Altered States (1980) Paddy Chayefsky: a novel based on John C. Lilly's sensory
deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive
drugs.

10 – The Phenomenon of Man (1955) by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: an essay about the
unification of human consciousness.