Reading Recommendations for Deadpool

Posted by Maia Brown-Jackson

We at Quirk Books care about Deadpool's literary tastes. He might not be the most self-centered but he does like to see himself in what he reads. Off-center moral compass? Dancing along the fourth wall? Brilliant, meta, snarky, and never boring? That sounds about right.

If you’re feeling a little irreverent, a little violent, and just keep expecting life to keep kicking your ass, you might need some Deadpool distraction. His top seven reads right now…

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

We’ve got Hiro Protagonist, pizza delivery man and hacker extraordinaire; Y.T., badass skater girl: and Raven, who is always literally on the verge of going nuclear. Plus language as code, a totally conceivable dystopian future where capitalism is the new religion, and sword fights. Why hasn't Deadpool already picked this for book club already?

 

 

Survivor, by Chuck Palanhuik

After one slightly off-his-rocker member of a death cult survives their mass suicide, Tender Branson turns into a celebrity overnight. Insightful yet unworldly, Tender meets a femme-fatale-slash-psychic and the two team up to make Tender the messiah of a new religion. It does not go as planned.

 

Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi

The brilliant novelist Mr. Fox has some unfortunate misogynistic tendencies in his writing. Like killing all of his female characters. The first woman he created, Mary Foxe, is not thrilled about this turn of events. She’s had enough, and arrives to haunt her author and his wife.

 

VALIS, by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick is struck by a beam of pink light that just happens to transmit information to him from a group of wise aliens regarding life, the world, and the next baby Jesus. Naturally he also has long conversations with another of his multiple personalities, is paranoid that he’s being watched by the Feds, and becomes certain that the fictional film, Valis, illustrates how the world would have gone to hell if Nixon had remained president.

 

Redshirts, by John Scalzi

A lowly ensign on a spaceship exploring the universe notices that, well, at least one of his fellow crew members dies on every mission. Yet the captain and lieutenant, constantly on the brink of death themselves, always make it out of each mission safely.

It’s about redshirts, guys. That’s the book. Self aware redshirts.

 

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

After foiling a bank robbery, a taxi driver is sent mysterious cards instructing him to do specific good deeds. He didn’t mean to be a hero, and he doesn’t have some grand plan. But he is the guy who’s there, and so these tasks fall on him.

 

 

Other People’s Heroes, by Blake M. Petit

Comic book heroes are joined by one of their biggest fans, who is familiar with all the tropes and still can somehow be naïve about his heroes’ morality.

 

 

So get your milk money, go watch Deadpool on the big screen. In the meantime, crack open a book and don’t mind him too much. He’ll probably be reading over your shoulder. And yes, he totally endorses this message.

Maia Brown-Jackson

Maia Brown-Jackson

Maia Brown-Jackson is a recovering English major and recent transplant to Philadelphia. She tutors high school students when she’s not busy imagining life as a space pirate or internationally renowned detective. While drinking too much coffee and eating too much sugar, she’s mostly alive and learning Tumblr (http://laceandparkour.tumblr.com/) and Instagram (instagram.com/forsakendarling/).