VALIS

Written by: Philip K Dick

First line: Horselover Fat's nervous breakdown began the day he got the phonecall from Gloria asking if he had an Nembutals.

Why you should read this book: It took me 30 years and a pandemic to finally get through the first book of this trilogy, in which we meet a depressed, suicidal addict called Horselover Fat (who is also Philip K Dick, who is a character in the story, the narrator of the story, and the author of the story) yanked from his downward spiral by the delivery of a blast of superconcentrated information in the form of a pink light. Despite knowing that it was a science fiction novel, my brain kept insisting that it was merely the narrative of a man's descent into schizophrenia, up until the moment that other characters started to affirm Horselover's "delusions." While it's an unconventional read that makes the reader work hard to follow the arc, the payoff of this story is tremendous.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Without a grounding in world history, world mythology, and psychology, along with a passing knowledge or alchemy, gnosticism, mysticism, and philosophy, it might be hard to follow this narrative.