I’m trying to read all the books that inspired Ian Fleming and am currently reading one called “Ouroboros or The Mechanical Extension of Mankind” by the strangely named Garet Garrett.
It was found amongst Fleming’s personal library and is a 1920’s book about the consequences of mechanisation of humanity.
Of all the Bond villains, Dr No has always fascinated me most and this book along with another called Hephaestus or the Soul of the Machine by EH Fournier are supposed to be the two that most inspired Dr No (who is great in the film and even more terrifying in the book).
by RevolvingParameter
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One of the weirder ones for me was Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu
The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollmann.
It’s a mix of historical fiction, Icelandic myth, and Inuit myth. It’s written like a fable and it takes about 1/3 of the book before you’re introduced to anyone resembling a main character. It was a pretty good book despite getting a little aimless and bloated at times.
I don’t know how niche it is but I am reading [*I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/733897/i-love-russia-by-elena-kostyuchenko-translated-by-bela-shayevich-and-ilona-yazhbin-chavasse/) by Elena Kostyuchenko and it’s really great. It’s a series of her writing as a journalist essentially along the timeline of Putin’s arc. It’s not dissimilar to the writings of Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist whose books are amazing (but also at times extremely upsetting.)
My collection of lesbian separatist sci fi grows with “Les Guerilleres” by Monique Wittig! It’s a French novel from the 60’s and seems to be about fighting the patriarchy with rocket launchers.