What are some of your favorite obscure books...?

[First Speaker]

...my own list would take a week to type...but here are a few, chosen at random:

1. Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber (1943)

2. The President Vanishes, by Rex Stout (1933)

3. The Edge of Running Water, William Sloane (1937)

4. The Man on a Donkey, H. F. M. Prescott (1952)

5. On Movies, Dwight MacDonald (1969)

Any others?

[consider_this]

1. What qualifies as obscure?

serious question.

[First Speaker]

3. Something, I guess, that the average literate person either doesn't know...

...or hasn't thought about in years. It's really a judgment call. For instance--I chose a Rex Stout novel that doesn't have Nero Wolfe. I don't regard them as "obscure", because I still see them on sale at Barnes and Noble. They're in print, and familiar to every mystery fan. *The President Vanishes* isn't, probably, familiar to every mystery fan. Some people would consider Vidal's *Burr* obscure, because it was a best-seller 50 years ago. Others regard it as a classic. This is just supposed to be fun, so decide for yourself...

[consider_this]

8. Thank you! n/t

[Aristus]

2. "The Wanting Seed" by Anthony Burgess.

Best known for the controversial "A Clockwork Orange", Burgess's "The Wanting Seed" is just as challenging a piece of literature, but more surreal. A critic once described it as taking place, not in the future, but an extension of the present. Italics mine.

Fascinating book.

[wnylib]

17. If you like surreal stories dealing with

time, you might like English translations of works by Jorge Borges. One in particular deals with an extension of time, El Milagro Secreto - The Secret Miracle. He wrote other stories that deal with time, but The Secret Miracle is the only one I have read.

[LakeArenal]

4. The Shell Seekers by Rosamond Pilcher

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37095.The_Shell_Seekers

[consider_this]

11. I seem to remember that one.

[NNadir]

5. A. K. Lavrukhina and A. A. Pozdnyakov's classic...

"Analytical Chemistry of Technetium, Promethium, Astatine and Francium, Translated by R. Kondor, (1970) Ann Arbor Humphrey Science Publishers.

It should have been a best seller, but was over looked by the literati.

[mobeau69]

6. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

[zanana1]

26. I read that back in the day.

I don't remember what it was all about, but you know what they say; "if you remember the 60's, you weren't there".

[Xipe Totec]

7. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Anecdotario de una vida inútil... pero divertida - Fulana de Tal (Nom de Plum)

Doheny the Cruel - Gabriel Antonio Menéndez

Labyrinths - Gorge Luís Borges

[Mike Nelson]

9. I love these threads...

... gives me some reading ideas! I will add my recommendation. I think it should be right up there with H G Wells and F Scott Fitzgerald:

1. Time and Again by Jack Finney (1970)

[Squinch]

12. Such a surprisingly great book!

[consider_this]

10. Anyone remember the Carlos Casteneda books?

I don't know if they would be a favorite now. One of those things I bet if I read now would seem much different then in very early adulthood.

[dhill926]

18. I was WAY into them...

you're right, it would be interesting to see how they aged. Something tells me there was a good level of bullshit involved, but not sure.

[consider_this]

20. I have a strong recollection of...

liking the traveling as a crow stuff. I wonder if that is where George R. R. Martin Game of Thrones stuff about the all-seeing raven might have derived from?

[panader0]

28. I took Carlos Casteneda's advice and ate some jimson weed or "Sacred Datura".

Holey moley! Unbelievable hallucinations. I clung to the floor of my small shack while my
buddy rambled around the little town of Patagonia, got arrested, and went to jail in Nogales.
I didn't see him for a few days.
I had no irises, all pupils, even the next day. I tried several plant hallucinogens, mushrooms,
morning glory seeds, etc., but datura is unreal. I never did it again.

[dhill926]

33. that is one HELL of a story....man...

and yep, I would have tried just about anything back in the day...

[Tikki]

13. "The Butterfly Kid"...Chester Anderson's 1967 Sci-fi/Fantasy novel.

Part of the Greenwich Village Trilogy..also included T. A. Waters 1970 release of "The Probability Pad" and "The Unicorn Girl" from 1969 by author Michael Kurland.

"ANGER..The unauthorized biography of Kenneth Anger" 1995 by Bill Landis.

"Go Tell The Mountain..The Stories and Lyrics of Jeffrey Lee Pierce" 1998 The Estate of Jeffrey Lee Pierce

Tikki

[Walleye]

14. The Rover-Joseph Conrad.

I read it years ago. I really got into Conrad. This book is a complex adult plot.It’s about a pirate type guy in Napoleonic France. He is extremely smart and shrewd and in the end he performs a self-sacrificing act. I love the seafaring tales. Is it a very original story. I can kind of see Bogart playing the part of the protagonist. Conrad’s last novel.

[lpbk2713]

15. Alas, Babylon

A post apocalyptic novel I read in the 1960's around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I've never forgotten it and have intended to read it again but never quite got around to it.

[Trailrider1951]

29. Yes, I remember that book

I read it in the 9th or 10th grade, later in the '60's. Depressing as Hell.

[OregonBlue]

16. Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse

"It all began when Hugh Trevor-Roper acquired the voluminous memoirs of Sir Edmund Backhouse, until then known only as a distinguished Chinese scholar who had lived quietly until his death in 1944.

The memoirs depicted a very different person - a man who said that he had been 'intimate' with many nobles, from Lord Rosebery to Verlaine, and whose lovers had included the Dowager Empress of China. In fact, they were so fantastic that the author felt obliged to discover all he could about the man who had written them: and what he reveals here is the story of one of the most outrageous forgers, confidence tricksters and eccentrics of the century. "

Sometimes difficult but intriguing read.

[mikebl]

19. Temple of Gold William Goldman

nt

[Wawannabe]

21. Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

This is the sequel to Forrest Gump.
No one I’ve talked to has heard of it.
Both books are hilarious!!!
The Forrest Gump book is so much better than the movie and it was a great movie, right?

In Gump & Co Forrest’s son is a main character and he is very smart.

The swearing in both books is phenomenal!
A hoot!

[elleng]

22. by John McPhee,

Coming into the Country The story of Alaska and the Alaskans.

and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McPhee

[Trailrider1951]

31. That sounds fascinating!

I'll order it online. Up till now, my favorite McPhee book is Basin and Range. I first read it as a Geology undergraduate at summer field camp in Nevada. Those were the days!

[elleng]

34. Would have been a great place to read it!

Glad you like him, an OUTSTANDING writer.

[Coventina]

23. The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye

Not sure if it's really obscure, but I don't hear much about it.

The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw (I love this novel to pieces!!)

King and Goddess by Judith Tarr

The Hippopotamus Marsh by Pauline Gedge (I admit, I have a thing for ancient Egypt)

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (makes me want to kick wannabes in the nutsack)

[sarge43]

24. Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Man and Star Maker n/t

[betsuni]

25. Anita Loos' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1925) -- I love it!

[panader0]

27. 'The Knockout Artist' by Harry Crews and 'Wait Until Spring Bandini' by John Fante

https://www.amazon.com/Wait-Until-Spring-Bandini-Fante/dp/0876855540

[tblue37]

30. "Sister North." It reminds me of the Borges story ""The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim."

The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You

[Trailrider1951]

32. Here are a couple of mine:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer: A tragedy about a group of climbers on Mt. Everest

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: I saw the movie, loved it, and had to read the book

Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince: A book of worldwide scope on how humans have created dramatic planetary change, some for the detriment, some for the better of our environment. An essay on climate change, how we humans have endured it in the past, and how we can cope in the future.

[Alpeduez21]

35. Illusions; the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

by Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)

[IcyPeas]

36. a few

1. Venus on the Half Shell by Kilgore Trout

2. The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle

3. Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

[First Speaker]

37. *Venus on the Half-Shell* was ghosted by SF writer Philip Jose Farmer...

...and he managed to convince quite a few people that Vonnegut had actually written it. It's good fun...

[IcyPeas]

39. For years I believed it was Kurt vonnegut.

I still have the old paperback.

[musette_sf]

38. Little Me by Patrick Dennis (1961)

It's hilarious, highly recommended.

[PennyK]

40. LOLOLOL!

I have it and love it. Look into Patrick Dennis' life -- you will not believe it!

[musette_sf]

41. Another one by Patrick Dennis, The Joyous Season (1965)

Also hilarious, I can still quote whole passages.

[Vivienne235729]

42. The White Indian Series by Donald Clayton Porter

I read that growing up and LOVED it!