Philip K. Dick suggestions

[Gorloche]

This is a fairly specific topic for me, but I think that it could possibly help anyone else significantly into sci-fi, especially its trippier, metaphysical end as opposed to stark space operas (not that I don't love me some space opera, just...).

So far, what I have read b him is:
The Man in the High Castle
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Divine Invasion

and I am currently about a third of the way through:

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Now, I figure I should read VALIS to complete the VALIS trilogy and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said because that has amazing reviews, but aside from those, what should I get into? I am looking to delve more into deep cuts, if I could borrow a term from radio. I know of Do Androids... and A Scanner Darkly and, while they seem interesting, I am looking for more obscure things by him. Or at least the hidden gems. Hidden gems tend to feel a lot more personal to me because of the lack of saturation in them. Any help at all would be appreciated. I plan on, over a very long term, hacking through his bibliography, so this would more be for guiding.

[pharmaceuticalfunk]

Definitely read VALIS, I haven't read the trilogy yet just the novel and let me say that the book itself makes you feel like you are somewhat crazy. I think it is a very interesting reflection on the power of inherent ideas to dominate the pscyhe, Dick being a pretty heavy gnostic scholar had a very religious oriented experience. But, I think it lends a great deal of incite into the creative mind of the master and allows you to question what exactly the validly of an idea being consider reality is.

One of his earlier works, The Solar Lottery, was very intriguing. It's essentially about a society controlled by randomness and people's attempts to control the flow of that randomness. It reads like a sci-fi suspense novel and has some amazingly weird and wonderful ideas especially considered it came out in 1955.

Lies Inc. is one of the trippyest books I've ever read it's an extension of the Unteleported Man, if memory serves a collection of about 100 or so pages they found after his death that were going to be included originally. It's about the expansion of the mind and human spirit against the tyranny of corporations. It's just... there is a point where one the characters gets shot by a dart filled with LSD and the experience he has I imagine is akin to a finger print worth or some such madness

Fuck I love Dick's work! and I am also going to end up going through his whole bibliography. His stories start off so simple and then blossom into these complex, elaborate tales of mind and soul. Simply phenomenal. I really just chose the books I read at random for what my local library had and I was blown away.

[Aimrehtopyh]

After reading the four stories in the "Library of America" collection (http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=252) I felt like the real world was about to melt away like a Dali painting. Fucking amazing. It had: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata..., Do androids..., and Ubik.

The Library of America does some amazing work. It's probably the finest book in my library; rayon binding, bible-thin-archive-grade paper, just a joy to hold in your hand. If you care about such things, anyway.

I guess it was so popular they made another. (http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=285)

[crazy hazy vermonter]

I recently read Martian Time Slip and it was pretty depressing but I really enjoyed its description of life on mars and its political relationship with Earth nonetheless. and Flow my Tears was also an excellent read.

[MarsCoban]

Just read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Very interesting read, was intrigued by the concepts he put forth but Jesus Christ, this man was a terrible writer. Supposedly he was influenced by the likes of Beckett. He should have learned a thing or two. Aside from his amateur writing style and boring characters, the book somehow still managed to be interesting and quite readable. If you're looking for high art, you wont find it here, but interesting and undeveloped concepts, yes...it has that, which, to me, made it worth reading.

Now I am onto "VALIS"...I feel the same about this as I did about "Do Androids...?"

But, we'll see. I haven't finished it yet.

[Slave of the Beast]

A Scanner Darkly.

[Social Junker]

A Scanner Darkly.

The book was decent; however, the movie sucked. I blame Keanu Reeves.

[The_Seventh_Artist]

A Scanner Darkly.

I have read some parts of it in the PC (e-book) however, I don't really like reading e-books so I didn't continue reading it. It's a good book and I can definitely recommend it.

[Kykeon]

I like pretty much every book that I've read by Philip K. Dick. Some of them are more silly sci-fi books than others, but really good silly sci-fi. Ubik is a good one.