Not all of his books are like that. He delved into some different genres outside of experimental fiction, there are his disaster novels such as the Drowned World or the Burning World, or the Crystal world. Then he does some hard sci-fi stuff, mainly in his short stories, which there is a complete short stories that has my favorite short story in all of history, The Secret History of World War 3, then there are his semi-autobiographic works like Empire of the Sun (which was a decent movie) and The Kindness of Women. The Empire of the Sun really sets the tone for his weirder stuff, I always thought–the Spielberg movie doesn’t really get to the heart of that–I always saw that book as being–here is where I come from and why kind of thing. Then he wrote on consumerism and class in books like SuperCannes and Kingdom Come. What I like about Ballard is that his work is diverse enough that you are likely to find something you enjoy in his work–it’s not all cut-up weirdness and auto-centric eroticism.
If I had to say my favorite books by him, I’d go with Empire of the Sun, Concrete Island, Kingdom Come, and Hello America (which is a sci-fi story about a rediscovering American after it had been abandoned).
Anyway, here is his bibliography–maybe start with the Complete Short Stories, as you can dip into a variety of his styles:
http://www.ballardian.com/jg-ballard-bibliography
You know, looking at that list, I’m not sure I’ve read much of his non-fiction… maybe I should give that a shot!
