1

Ray Bradbury

Image: Rod Long

Perhaps the most emblematic name in American science fiction, Ray Bradbury was an author and screenwriter best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 , and his short story collections The Martian Chronicles , and The Illustrated Man .

His works not only imagine what extraterrestrial colonies might be like but also explore how such experiences would affect humans on a deeply personal level. His prose is both poetic and informative, making it accessible to both young and adult readers alike.

2

Philip K. Dick

Image: Filip Filkovic Philatz

If you’ve ever seen the movie Blade Runner or the TV series The Man in the High Castle , then you’ve been exposed to the work of Philip K. Dick. This prolific novelist wrote numerous novels and short stories that explore philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, human nature, and characters struggling against illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, and authoritarian governments.

His novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis for Blade Runner and his works have earned him countless awards all over the world.

3

William Gibson

Image: Brian McGowan

The creator of the now-ubiquitous term "cyberspace," William Gibson was a speculative fiction writer whose works explore the effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on humans (fans of Black Mirror will likely find this author to their liking).

His first novel, Neuromancer , was credited with revitalizing science fiction literature in the 1980s, and he was described in 1999 as "probably the most important novelist of the past two decades.

4

L. Ron Hubbard

Image: Luna Wang

"While he is now more famous for founding Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was a genuine science fiction writer who authored works such as Battlefield Earth, To the Stars, Buckskin Brigades, and Death’s Deputy , among other titles.

Hubbard was quite a prolific pulp science fiction and fantasy writer in his early career and, in 1950, he published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health , establishing organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques.

5

Theodore Sturgeon

Image: Rod Long

A critic turned writer, Theodore Sturgeon wrote over 120 short stories, 11 novels, and even a handful of scripts for the original Star Trek television series. His first science fiction novel, More Than Human , won the 1954 International Fantasy Award for that year's best novel.

Though he was not as well known to the general public as contemporaries like Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury, Sturgeon gained recognition among readers of mid-20th-century science fiction anthologies. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s, he was the most anthologized English-language author alive.

6

Alfred Bester

Image: Steve Johnson

One of the few writers credited with inventing modern science fiction, according to one of his colleagues, Alfred Bester was an author, TV, radio, and comics scriptwriter, and magazine editor. His novel, The Demolished Man , was the first winner of the Hugo Awards in 1953.

While working as a scriptwriter for DC Comics, he created the supervillain Solomon Grundy and also wrote extensively for television, magazines, and radio.

7

H. P. Lovecraft

Image: Alejandro Piñero Amerio

An author whose work is as famous in the science fiction genre as it is in horror, H. P. Lovecraft was a writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror fiction, and a mixture of all these genres. His most notable work is the Cthulhu Mythos .

Some of his more popular works include The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth , and The Shadow Out of Time . The central theme of his books is cosmicism, a theory dictating that "there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence."

8

Frank Herbert

Image: Pierre Bamin

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. is best known for writing the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, 1965's Dune , along with its five sequels. He also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer.

His famous saga, set in the distant future and spanning millennia, explores complex themes, such as the long-term survival of the human species, human evolution, planetary science and ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, economics, sex, and power in a future where humanity has long since developed interstellar travel and colonized thousands of worlds.

9

Ursula K. Le Guin

Image: Karsten Klemme

With a literary career spanning nearly sixty years, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is another legendary name on this list. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe and the Earthsea fantasy series.

Frequently described as a science fiction author, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American letters," though she once said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist."

10

Orson Scott Card

Image: Greg Rakozy

The only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, both for his novel Ender’s Game , and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead , Orson Scott Card is a science fiction writer who often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Since 1979, he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.

During his childhood, Card read children's classics and popular novels, his favorite book being Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper . He often refers to works by Robert A. Heinlein and J. R. R. Tolkien as sources of inspiration.

1

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Image: Daniel Hooper 🌊

Not all great flavors match, but pizza and barbecue chicken certainly do. This delightful fusion features tangy BBQ sauce, tender grilled chicken, and often sweet onions , creating a perfect balance of sweet and savory.

Some recipes are known to include smoked bacon or sweet corn, adding an extra layer of flavor. It’s a modern, flavorful twist on traditional pizza.

2

Supreme Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

The name itself sets the stage for a memorable flavor, and this pizza does not disappoint. Supreme Pizza is a hearty option designed to satisfy everyone. It combines several toppings, including pepperoni, sausage, onions, peppers, and mushrooms .

While it can be made at home, the sheer number of ingredients might make it easier to enjoy from your local pizzeria.

3

White Sauce Pizza

Image: Ivan Torres

The omnipresent tomato sauce, which gives a noble base flavor to our pizza toppings, is set aside for this iteration and trades seats with a creamy white sauce instead.

Combine olive oil and garlic to coat the dough or make a homemade white sauce. This white pizza version can use a ricotta cheese base. Keep the toppings simple so the sauce remains the star—think mozzarella cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, and fresh herbs.

4

Pickle Pizza

Image: SuckerPunch Gourmet

Another flavor that shouldn't work—but does—is a pizza topped with pickled cucumbers. Some pizza joints across the country offer this unique version that uses pickles and spices as its topping .

The pizza is completed with the classic tomato sauce and a light cheese, to avoid clashing too much with the vinegar from the pickles.

5

Grilled Pizza

Image: Revolve Pizza Oven

Unlike the previous versions, the distinctive flavor of this pizza comes from its unique cooking method. The stretched dough is placed directly on the grates over hot coals , cooking it on one side, flipping the dough, and topping it in reverse—cheese first, sauce second. After this, the pizza goes back to the grates in order for the other side to cook and for the cheese to melt.

The resulting pizza is a crispy, airy, well-charred delight with a smoky flavor. Grilled pizza can be topped with virtually any ingredient according to personal preferences.

6

Green Peppers Pizza

Image: Anna Evans

A healthy and popular pizza topping in America, green peppers bring a crispy and refreshing dimension to any slice. Combined with onions and maybe even mushrooms they create an extremely flavorful, crispy, and crunchy ingredient that adds a refreshing dimension to a pizza.

7

Mexican Pizza

Image: Nik Owens

Mexican food is often associated with tacos, guacamole, nachos, and other delicious treats but Mexican pizza is a force to be reckoned with, too. The main ingredients are chorizo, jalapeños, pepperoni, red onion, and cannellini beans . It’s spicy and tangy, with a satisfying texture thanks to the ground meat and beans.

If you ever see this on the menu, don’t hesitate—go for it! You won’t regret it.

8

Burrata Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

Burrata cheese is like the supreme version of mozzarella: creamy, soft, and utterly delicious. A good burrata pizza includes cherry tomatoes, pistachio mortadella, and, of course, burrata cheese .

It’s not often you’ll find this on your local pizzeria’s menu, so if you spot it and want to try something special, give it a shot!

9

Greek Pizza

Image: Brenna Huff

Mediterranean cuisine goes beyond Italian flavors and Greek pizza adds some interesting ingredients to the recipe. This version is characterized by its thick, slightly wet dough, greasy cheese, and tomato sauce with a strong taste of oregano .

The typical ingredients for Greek pizza include artichokes, feta cheese, and Kalamata olives.

10

Pesto Pizza

Image: Klara Kulikova

If you associate pesto with pasta rather than pizza, you are not alone. But, as a fellow Italian specialty, pizza also benefits greatly from this aromatic sauce and its ingredients. The rich flavors of cheese and pine nuts in pesto complement the basic ingredients of a cheese pizza perfectly. Topped with parmesan cheese, mushrooms, and oregano , this pizza is nothing short of amazing.

1

The Purple Store – Online (with a location at Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA)

The Purple Store does exactly one thing: it sells purple items. Every single thing in the store is purple . Shirts, socks, kitchen appliances, furniture, jewelry, dog collars, dice, cowboy hats—if it exists and can be purple, The Purple Store has it.

This is the store for the person in your life who is very, very serious about their favorite color, or for anyone who finds the concept of a store with a strictly enforced color policy absolutely hilarious and also kind of admirable.

2

The Museum of Bad Art Store: Somerville, MA

The Museum of Bad Art exists to celebrate paintings that tried hard, fell short, and ended up magnificent for entirely the wrong reasons. The gift shop sells prints, books, and merchandise built around the museum's collection of gloriously terrible masterpieces .

Nobody here is embarrassed: the art is bad, everyone knows it, and that's precisely the point. This is the store for people who believe that effort deserves recognition regardless of outcome, and for anyone who has ever hung a painting in their living room that wasn't quite right and left it there for fifteen years anyway.

3

Marty's Reliable Cycle: Westfield, NJ

Operating since 1946, Marty's Reliable Cycle is the kind of place that shouldn't still exist but absolutely does. It's famous nationwide not just for its vintage bicycle inventory, but for its ceiling-to-floor stacks of cycling memorabilia, spare parts, and decades of accumulated everything that give it the feel of a very organized avalanche.

Walking in feels like stepping into a time capsule where someone hit pause around 1978. Cyclists make pilgrimages here. If you're passing through New Jersey and remotely enjoy bicycles, nostalgia, or both, it's worth the detour.

4

The Sock Drawer: Providence, RI

The Sock Drawer is devoted entirely to novelty and compression socks in every pattern, theme, and level of absurdity imaginable . Cats riding tacos. Flaming hot dogs. Historical figures on argyle. If you can think of it, there’s a good chance The Sock Drawer already has it in stock.

What makes it more than a joke is that it also carries medical-grade compression socks for people who need them, meaning you can solve a circulation problem and walk out with a pair of socks featuring a screaming eagle at the exact same time.

5

Archie McPhee: Seattle, WA

Archie McPhee has been selling rubber chickens, bacon-scented soap, canned unicorn meat, and inflatable Stonehenge for decades, and it shows no signs of slowing down or becoming even slightly more sensible. It is the undisputed gold standard of American novelty shops: the place other weird stores aspire to be when they grow up .

The genius of Archie McPhee is that everything is absurd, but nothing feels accidental. Someone sat down, thought very carefully about what the world needed, and concluded the answer was a horse head mask and a bag of dismembered gummy bears. They were right, and the store has the loyal following to prove it.

6

Wall Drug: Wall, SD

Wall Drug started as a modest drugstore in 1931 in the middle of South Dakota and somehow became one of the most aggressively advertised destinations in America. Signs for it appear thousands of miles away, and the complex has grown to fill an entire block with shops, exhibits, animatronic dinosaurs, and attractions that resist easy categorization. A five-cent cup of coffee is still on the menu.

Nobody drives to Wall Drug because they need something. They go because the signs wore them down over five straight states and they finally gave in. Once inside, the sheer scale of the thing (part store, part roadside attraction, part collective hallucination) becomes impressive.

7

Possumbilities: Fredericksburg, VA

Possumbilities is a gift shop, wildlife education center, and opossum advocacy organization all rolled into one cheerfully strange package. Run by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator named Karen Brace, the store sells opossum-themed merchandise —plushies, mugs, apparel, hand-crocheted baby opossum figures— and features live opossum ambassadors on-site Thursday through Monday.

This is the store for anyone who has ever been told that opossums are ugly and gross and wants to argue the point. Imagine stopping in Fredericksburg on a road trip, wandering into what looks like a small gift shop, and coming face-to-face with a real, live opossum named Stuart. That is a story you'll tell at every barbecue for the rest of your life.

8

Unclaimed Baggage: Scottsboro, AL

Unclaimed Baggage is exactly what it sounds like : a store that buys luggage that airlines have given up on reuniting with its owners—after a full three-month search—and sells the contents to the public . Items are cleaned, tested, appraised, and priced at up to 80% below retail value. New inventory arrives daily, because bags are lost daily.

Over the years, the store has turned up a NASA Space Shuttle camera, an Egyptian burial mask from around 1500 BC, a live rattlesnake, and a puppet from the Jim Henson film Labyrinth . The everyday inventory includes designer clothes, electronics, jewelry, and sporting goods, but the real draw is the promise that you have no idea what you'll find.

9

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop: Seattle, WA

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has been operating on Seattle's waterfront since 1899 and in that time has assembled a collection of genuine mummies, shrunken heads, narwhal tusks, and oddities that blur the line between souvenir shop and sideshow attraction. You can buy a snow globe or stand two feet from an actual mummified human body.

It’s the kind of place that would be impossible to open today and which survives partly on reputation, and partly on morbid curiosity.

10

The Mütter Museum Store: Philadelphia, PA

The Mütter Museum is a medical history museum housing anatomical specimens, preserved human remains, and things in jars that no one entirely expects to find in downtown Philadelphia . Its gift shop sells anatomical models, medical curiosity replicas, and books that somehow make the whole experience feel educational and gift-able rather than deeply alarming—most of the time.

You can buy a soap shaped like a human brain, a replica Civil War surgical kit, or a calendar featuring unusual medical case studies from the 1800s. It's oddly tasteful given the subject matter, and the store has developed a devoted following.