r/books • u/Euthanaught • 8d ago
What’s your favorite book of all time that no one has ever heard of?
Mine has to be The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan. It’s a beautifully huge Russian novel, a slice of life book about kids with physical disabilities living in a group home, with just a dash of magic realism, enough to make you go “what the fuck?” and want to read it all over again. Apparently it’s quite popular in Russia, even more so than Harry Potter, but /r/thegrayhouse only has ~300 members.
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u/DarkKerrigor 8d ago
Signal to Noise, by Eric S. Nylund.
Humans discover a way to communicate over infinite distances instantaneously through the subatomic vibrations of a specific material. It turns out there's an entire network of alien civilizations making deals and exchanging information through this means.
It's also a exploration of the Dark Forest answer to the Fermi Paradox.
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u/MendelsonJoe 8d ago
The Worm Ouroboros, by E.R. Eddison (1922)
Tolkien often gets credited for inventing the fantasy genre, but Tolkien himself has said that this was one of his inspirations
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u/monkeyhind 8d ago
I have an old paperback copy of The Worm Ouroboros and now that I think about it I'm not sure I ever read it! I'll have to give it a try and see if it rings a bell.
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u/spudaug 8d ago
I’ll tell ya it sure reads like something from 100 years ago. The author’s voice is a bit like Tolkien mashed up with Edgar Rice Burroughs. It’s just from a different time.
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u/scooterfrog 8d ago
Free epub on guttenberg
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u/katchoo1 8d ago
Free audiobook on LibriVox as well. Just checked it and it’s a solo with one reader who seems to be pretty decent.
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u/WalkingTarget 8d ago
Yeah; 1922 is old enough to automatically be in the public domain regardless of other considerations.
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u/RobotMentality 8d ago
Learned about this book from a metal song. Ordered it, but turned out they'd run out. Must try again sometime.
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u/FantosTheUrk 8d ago
I bought a copy 20 odd years ago but I've never managed to get far into it.
I remember something about wrestling a demon king (I think) but just couldn't get into it.
Still, I do try every five or six years when I find it again.
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u/Tooko1005 8d ago
Little, Big by by John Crowley. It’s not as if it’s completely unknown (it even won the World Fantasy Award in 1982), but I almost never hear anyone talk about it or mention it, or even the author, even though he’s been around publishing since the 70s. It’s one of the best magical realism books I’ve ever read, although it’s often classified as fantasy. It has a certain cult following surrounding it because of how beautifully it’s written and how it’s like being inside a dream. Highly recommended to anyone who likes the weird and the unusual.
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u/BrightCarver 8d ago edited 8d ago
I’ve read it twice and really want to like it, but somehow I just don’t get it. I’ve got an MA in literature and read widely and pretty much constantly, but this book was beyond me, I guess. I just had such a hard time following what was going on and why, understanding the characters’ motivations, etc.
I’m really bummed, because the book is so beloved, and I’d really hoped to connect with it. If anyone has any tips for how to approach or appreciate it, please let me know. I really do feel that I’m missing out on something special.
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u/monkeyhind 8d ago
One of my favorites. I had a copy of the original trade printing (1981?) that got mangled by a friend's dog. I managed to snag another copy.
That reminds me that about 10-15 years ago I paid a hefty price in advance for a new illustrated "limited edition" that kept getting delayed. To this day I never received it. I've got to try and track that down!
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u/Tooko1005 8d ago
The website is here. I got my copy just about a week ago (although I only paid for it a year and a half ago).
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u/DeeKayEmm412 8d ago
One of my favorites. His book Engine Summer is also excellent. I find very few people who have heard of or read any of his books. The Aegypt Cycle is in my to be read stack and I’m hoping it’s as weird and wonderful as his other works.
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u/BinstonBirchill 8d ago
Picked this up a month ago based on seeing it in the stacks of maximalist literature readers. Looking forward to it, weird and unusual is always good… well, when it’s mixed with beautiful writing.
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u/DahliaDubonet None 8d ago
I love this post for the number of books I’ve added to my TBR and I am very excited to explore all of the recommendations. What an amazing post, thanks for starting this prompt!
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u/pen1smus1c 8d ago
We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Beautiful intergenerational novel set in Denmark, got really involved in the life of the characters as the years progressed, but I never hear it talked about anywhere
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u/giantpipsqueak 8d ago
I bought this book solely based on the cover art. Was surprisingly good. That was years ago, it’s on my re-read list, if I ever get through my unread list.
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u/CryptoCentric 8d ago
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams.
With all his popularity from Hitchhiker's Guide and television work with folks like Monty Python, Adams was hired to write a travel book where he goes and visits endangered species, talking about their plight and how they're currently doing. A lot of the humor in the book is him trying to work out exactly why they hired him of all people for the job.
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u/FreeCandyVanDriver 7d ago edited 7d ago •
Long but good story involving Last Chance To See:
My prize possession in life is my world-traveled, beaten up, soft cover copy of this book. I bumped into Douglas at a bar in some hotel, and we struck up a twenty minute conversation that didn't once mention any of his books or work for the first 20 minutes of it. Instead, he had asked about my travels. I was on the back leg of a year-long journey to about 20 of the most remote places on earth to try to understand what is the universally shared beliefs in all of us, despite our differences. The conversation was instantly comfortable and rich. It felt like a good shoe feels, if that makes sense.
As you'd expect, eventually the conversation came around to his books. I told him the the only thing I ever stole was a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from my local library when I was 14 and that it set me on my intellectual path of life. I also mentioned to him that Last Chance was one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books...so much so that in fact that I had my copy with me in my backback. He asked why I would have it on me, and I told him that I always had another, seemingly unrelated travel book that touches a bit on what I am doing with me when I travel. It helps me find the more obscured connections between seemingly unrelated strands of things.
Unsurprisingly, Douglas was shocked that I had a copy of a book on me that sold 30,000 copies. He asked me if he see it. I opened up my backpack, and pulled out my properly beaten-to-shit copy. He strummed the pages like a guitar, and stopped to take a long look at the photo section. He disappeared into those photos, recalling the memories of it. He smiled, laughed to himself, and shook his head an awful lot.
Douglas came back around from his own internal journey, and his wife had sat down next to us. He greeted her, and introduced us. She smiled as she saw the worn and ripped cover of the book on the table in front of him. He thanked me for letting him look at it, and made a comment about how beat the book was ("a pristine book isn't loved like a book in this shape is loved"), and said that he absolutely loved Last Chance, that it was the one thing he was most proud of doing, and that hebwas grateful to me for reminding him of that.
The conversation had run it's natural course, and Douglas flagged down a waiter. He snagged a pen off of him, and without asking me, he signed my piece of shit copy Last Chance To See. He paused after signing it, reflected for a bit (probably considered the totality of our conversation we had in about 2 seconds,) and he decided to include more than his signature and also wrote out the quote "God is destroyed in a poof of logic" on the inside.
He handed it back to me very gently, and told me that he hoped if my journey found me broke and desperate, I could sell the book to a dealer and that inscription might fetch me a few dollars more for it.
Thankfully that foreshadowing didn't come to pass, and that beaten-to-hell soft cover edition still rests on my sacred "first editions" book shelf.
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u/Rebelgecko 7d ago
Thanks for sharing, that was beautiful. I'd love to see a picture of your copy if you have one!
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u/tckrdave 8d ago
The book is really interesting. They followed up with a TV documentary: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See
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u/CryptoCentric 8d ago
Oh hell yeah, I didn't even know that.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_TITTYPIC 8d ago
Stephen Fry even did another follow up doco where he goes back and sees how they're doing after 20 years. Also great
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u/Charlie24601 Fantasy 8d ago
Stephen Fry did a tv series around that book. The encounter with a Kakapo parrot is especially hilarious.
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u/CryptoCentric 8d ago
Someone else in this thread pointed out how there's also an older one featuring Adams himself. Both are great!
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u/Morrinn3 7d ago
Holy shit! I came here to give precisely this answer! This book is so good and endlessly quotable. The entire rambling rant of the venomous snake expert about not getting bit is so god damn hilarious.
“So what do we do if we get bitten by something deadly?' I asked.
He looked at me as if I were stupid.
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u/EndlessEmergency 8d ago
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.
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u/jamesman53 8d ago
This one! I loved this book but never meet anyone that has read it.
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u/EndlessEmergency 8d ago
The only people I know who've also read it have read it because I gifted it to them. So far, everyone has said they liked it!
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u/kelkashoze 8d ago
I had to check - I bought this book from an op shop years ago and it's still on my 'to read' shelf... Maybe I'll finally get around to it...
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u/EndlessEmergency 8d ago
It is really, really good. Harkaway is the son of John le Carré, and it shows. Though it's his debut novel, he spins a great tale that's all at once very funny, touching, sad, and thought-provoking, and told with fantastic prose.
Angelmaker and Tigerman have much of the same feel, just turned down a notch or two. Gnomon has some really remarkable passages but at times gets very meta and abstract, perhaps a bit too much so.
Nonetheless, he is among my favorite authors, and I will always preorder any book he has coming up.
p.s. I am not Nick Harkaway, I swear!
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u/OctavianBlue 8d ago
I would also recommend Angelmaker by the same author, that was an amazing book.
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u/The_Demons_Slayer 8d ago
The dark is rising sequence. Susan cooper.
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u/My_Poor_Nerves 8d ago
I don't know how it is that these are so overlooked. They are excellent books
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u/The_Demons_Slayer 8d ago
Me either. Susan is a very nice woman. I have met her many times in my life.
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u/eccoditte 8d ago
Oh man so much nostalgia for that one. I feel like reading that in middle school helped shape me
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u/using_the_internet 8d ago
I got halfway through the series as a kid and then 100% forgot about it until a random thought a few weeks ago. Does it hold up as an adult?
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u/Lightworthy09 8d ago
Absolutely. Every reread is like I’m being transported to another world, and they’re absolutely beautifully written. I’d say I appreciate them more now than when I first read them twenty years ago.
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u/Maiyku 8d ago edited 7d ago
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech.
It’s a book I read as a child, but I’ve yet to come across a single person who has read it other than me.
I still think about the book sometimes (it’s been like 20 years too) and it’s 100% responsible for teaching me the phonetic alphabet because the main character learns it throughout the book. No other childhood book besides Black Beauty has me thinking about it all these years later. To me, that’s says something.
Another book would be Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. A lot of people have played the games, but very few have read the book. (It was only available in Russian for years, the copy I read was personally translated by someone, but I think it’s available in English now). It’s absolutely phenomenal. Better than the games, which is crazy because the games are good. Once you start it, you don’t want to put it down.
Edit: I’m so happy I found other Wanderer fans! :D
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u/NattieLight 8d ago
I felt the same way about Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech! I read it when I was 9 years old and it's never left me.
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u/StayPuffGoomba 8d ago
I read this every year with my students, and every year I have to take a lot of deep breaths and choke up at the end. I think last year half my class was ugly crying when we went to lunch.
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u/APwilliams88 8d ago
All of my favorite books ever are well known, but I was just thinking about a book called 'Tangerine' I read as a kid. I've never heard anyone else talk about it, but I remember loving it. I'd like to track it down and read it again someday. I don't remember who the author was. The cover art was a kid wearing glasses, but I honestly don't remember much about it.
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u/evagria_ 8d ago
Tangerine was required reading when I was in middle school! It's such a good book, really resonates and stays with ya.
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u/drcutiesaurus 8d ago
I loved it! I remember reading it as a class assignment and liked it so much I bought the book. I haven't read it in ages.
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u/bookeater
8d ago
•
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. It faced the challenge of releasing just before a very similarly named book that became a romance sensation.
Shades of Grey is a post apocalyptic sci-fi book set in a world defined by color. The higher up on the color spectrum you are, the more social cachet you have. The "greys" are the lowest tier of society.
There's a lot more to it. Fforde writes so well and creatively, creating a rich and unique world unlike any of the typical post apocalyptic YA stuff that's everywhere.
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u/whosthatlounging 8d ago
I love this book, and everything else by Jasper Fforde, although that's the one that really stands out to me. I recommend it all the time but I don't think anyone ever takes me up on it because of the unfortunate coincidence with the title. I'm currently reading another one of his books, The Constant Rabbit, and it's good too.
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u/dwarfmade_modernism 8d ago
I read and reread The Eyre Affair a ton. In uni we were assigned Jane Eyre, but I just ran out of time to read it. I aces that unit test exclusively because of Fforde, much to the annoyance of my friend, an avid Jane Eyre fan, who scored lower than me.
When people ask me for fantasy book recommendations, but they've already got into Terry Pratchett (GNU) I also recommend Jasper Fforde. So far no one else has read them, but all the Pratchett fans I know love Fforde too.
The Nursery Crime series is also genius
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u/Bookofdrewsus 8d ago
The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan. Everyone knows him for Trout Fishing in America (a classic in its own right) but I absolutely love the psychedelic swirl and dark fantasy of HM. Truly ahead of its time.
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u/IlexSonOfHan 8d ago
Moonlight and Vines by Charles De Lint. Just short stories about love, death and magic.
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u/Lady_Dinoasaurus 8d ago
All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman
It's a beautiful short story that I picked up off the shelf and stood there until I was about to miss my train, I bought it ran for my train and finished it before I got home
It's a wonderful world where lots of people have a strange and unique super power. Our main character has no such power but on his wedding to a woman who can make anything perfect her ex uses his power of suggestion to make her new husband invisible to her
The book is his desperate attempts to break this curse before she gives up on her husband and makes a new life without him 'perfect' by forgetting him completely.
It's strange and it's wonderful and I love it
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u/c0c0nought 8d ago
I just read it a week ago during a 2-hour commute in a cab. It’s short, crisp and the descriptions of the ‘superheroes’ are so fun!!!
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u/Viha_Antti 8d ago
Wouldn't necessarily call it one of my favourites of all time, but We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a book I've thought about quite often after reading it and not seen anyone mention it. Everyone knows 1984, but the older "We" get's overlooked. The story and the themes are very similar and I recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian stuff.
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u/THC__Lab 8d ago
I love The Mythadventures of Aahz and Skeeve, by Robert Asprin. Nobody has ever heard of it lol
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u/lyan-cat 8d ago
Another Fine Myth was a gem! It took me forever to read the whole series because my brother and I were stone broke. We had to take the bus to the library, and they often didn't have what we were looking for.
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u/GhostShipBlue 8d ago
Not only do I know this but I have a copy of the board game, Myth Fortunes. I also highly recommend the whole series, including the game. The game is a little dated by its design and play but still a lot of fun too.
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u/rottenromance 8d ago
I literally posted and then decided to scroll the comments only to discover others DO remember Aspirin’s books! On occasions when I look I haven’t found the MYTH books. But I do have Phule’s Company, and Phule’s Paradise. Always on the lookout for the others.
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u/swimtsunami 8d ago
I find myself thinking about Aspen's books more than they seem to warrant. I'm not sure if they really were so memorable or if I was just at a very formative time in life. Maybe I should one of them again for the nostalgia.
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u/houseape69 8d ago
The Long Ships by Frans G Bengtsson
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u/Malthus1 8d ago
I love it.
Trivia time: know why “Bluetooth” technology is called “Bluetooth”?
Because the guy who invented it had a fun conversation with a fan of The Long Ships, that’s why!
See “etymology” here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
Long story short: it was only intended to be a placeholder name, based on a conversation about he book and on finding a pic of King Bluetooth’s rune stone. But the other names they thought of weren’t as good, or were already used for other stuff. Before they could come up with something else, “Bluetooth” caught on. Plus it came with a nifty runic symbol, and King Bluetooth united the tribes sorta like the tech unites machines …
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u/Apprehensive_Tea_106 8d ago
Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Gets ignored a lot because of the comparisons to The Stand by Stephen King, but this book is a masterpiece on its own, and in some ways, it feels more Tolkien than even The Stand does.
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u/TakerFoxx 8d ago
I should look into that. My pick for this thread would be Boy's Life, which is an all-time favorite of mine that no one else has even heard of, so I really need to look into the rest of his stuff.
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u/DantesEdmond 8d ago
I liked Swan Song a lot, the comparisons to The Stand are pretty fair.
The only thing is that a few years later, I sometimes jumble up the details between the two books. They'll both eventually get a re-read.
I bought Boy's Life recently I'm excited to get into it.
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u/BulkSmashAll 8d ago
The Descent by Jeff Long. I’ve read it a few times, and it still captures my imagination. Horror, action, myth, fantasy all in one book. Not related to the movie of the same name, although there are some similarities.
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u/Zappagrrl02 8d ago
Yes!!!!! All of Max Barry’s books are great and interesting and unique, but that’s my favorite.
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u/CurvyAnna 8d ago
I worked at a library in college and randomly stumbled on "The Sluts" by Dennis Cooper intended for the interlibrary loan system. Instead, I snuck it home and read it in one night. It was gross, scandalous, unreliable, facinating and I had no one to talk about it with since I needed to sneak it into the outgoing book shipment the next morning.
Does anyone else remember this book??
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u/hicksreb 8d ago
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
First read it as a Science Fiction Book Club selection, but it really has no category. His 2nd, (Story of the Stone). and third, (Eight Skilled Gentlemen) are wonderful as well.
Self described as a "Tale of Ancient China that never was"
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u/WhatImKnownAs 8d ago
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
This book that no one has heard of still managed to win the World Fantasy Award and start a succesful series.
It is immensely entertaining, and so rich and varied that it is one of the few books I keep rereading.
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u/puttingupwithpots 8d ago
Darkness at Noon. The only people I’ve met in the wild who have heard of it before I tell them about it are polisci professors.
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u/tolkienfan2759 8d ago
lol that's funny, I know exactly what book you mean, Arthur Koestler, right? Never read it myself but it has a history in my family so to speak, although neither of them had much interest in polisci
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u/partytown_usa 8d ago
Number 8 on Modern Library's top 100 novels of the 20th century. That's how I discovered it: https://thegreatestbooks.org/lists/2
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u/BinstonBirchill 8d ago
Reading it right now. It’s referred to a lot in World War II histories and I’ve had it on my shelf for a couple years. I see it as a middle ground between 1984 & Invitation to a Beheading. The wall tapping is so intriguing.
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u/irren_echo 8d ago
Yo, I literally finished this book last week and loved it! Picked it up at a library book sale for like $2, had never heard of it before. It felt like he took the prompt for Invitation to a Beheading, and then did his own thing with it, which I am very here for.
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u/Comics4Cooks 8d ago
It’s Forrest Gump. Hear me out.. everyone has heard of it, everyone has seen the movie, I have not met a single person who has actually read it. Absolutely awesome book. The movie of course butchered it but apparently I’m the only person on the planet who knows.
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u/Couldbeaccurate 8d ago
Lucifer's Hammer, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Standard disaster book, but covers a lot of post diaster life which is where the book shines.
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u/Repulsive-Purple-133 8d ago
Day of the Triffids. Everyone knows about the movie but nobody knows about the book
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u/Alaska_Jack 8d ago
I LOVE THIS BOOK
Interesting fact: The opening scene of The Walking Dead was more or less directly ripped off from the opening scene of the movie 28 Days Later.
But the opening scene of 28 Days Later? Directly ripped off from the opening scene of Day of the Triffids.
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u/OctavianBlue 8d ago
John Wyndham is one of my favourite authors would also recommend The Midwich Cuckoos and Chocky.
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u/shhhhwoooooh 8d ago
Gregor the overlander by Susanne Collins.
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u/dynamic_argon 8d ago
Loved this series!! I cried so hard during the final book. More people need to know about this. There really was a time during that period in which so many amazing books for teens and young adults were being released that are just swept under the rug.
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u/pnwbreadwizard 8d ago
I LOVED THIS SERIES. I remember reading the series in middle school and it’s the reason why I read The Hunger Games series. But I honestly though the Gregor series was way better than The Hunger Games series
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u/Puntfootballs 8d ago
You just unlocked a memory from the early 2000s for me. Also shocked to see it was from Suzanne Collins
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u/chowmushi 8d ago
Has anybody ever heard of Flaubert’s Parrot (Julian Barnes)? I loved that book but it’s not well known by anybody I ever bring it up with.
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u/gdub3717 8d ago
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
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u/Harriets-Human 8d ago
I love Gaudy Night! I named my cat after Harriet Vane.
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u/fire_sign 8d ago
Ha! We very nearly named our cat after Harriet after her, but realised it would cause Family Drama and I nixed it last minute. I joke my goal in life is to drag everyone into the Wimsey books. Gaudy Night is the best, but I read Busman's Honeymoon first and the end of that stuck into my head so firmly I think it's still the one I hold closest to my heart.
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u/BrightCarver 8d ago edited 8d ago
Love this book! It’s the source of one of my favorite literary quotations: “How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.”
(Here’s a larger excerpt for context:
“Here are the ducks coming up for the remains of our sandwiches. Twenty-three years ago I fed these identical ducks with these identical sandwiches. … And ten and twenty years hence the same ducks and the same undergraduates will share the same ritual feast, and the ducks will bite the undergraduates’ fingers as they have just bitten mine. How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.”)
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u/Saffyrr 8d ago
The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. Not completely unknown, but I don't see many people discussing it. I read it years ago, and loved its message.
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u/KingKoil 8d ago
You know who loved this book? Bill Murray. He only agreed to appear in Ghostbusters if an adaptation of “The Razor’s Edge” starring him was filmed. He and director John Byrum wrote the screenplay together while traveling the country.
The film was released, but poorly reviewed and a box office bomb. It would be decades later before Murray attempted (and was successful at) a non-comedic role.
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u/Boddhisatvaa 8d ago
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
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u/thenagel 8d ago
his name was mahasamatman. he prefered to drop the maha and the atman, and just go by sam. he never claimed to be a god. but then, he never claimed NOT to be.
such a great book.
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u/BrianMagnumFilms 8d ago
elizabeth by ken greenhall, obscure horror novel from the seventies that is dripping with atmosphere and fucked up character dynamics, plus a brilliantly cold and passionless and unhinged narrator, a 14 year old girl. it’s gaining some minor recognition after a valancourt books reissue but still no major mainstream recognition.
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u/crazyike 8d ago
Probably the Duncton Wood series. Very little mention of it anywhere (including here), perhaps because it is not the easiest read with a narrow premise that doesn't have a very large built in audience.
And since I caught this thread 500 comments deep, no one will see this either and it will continue to be little thought of, lol.
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u/Waterblooms 8d ago
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie Macdonald is definitely a top 10 for me…..I have never heard anyone talk about that book.
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u/mountaingrrl_8 8d ago
It's very well known here in Canada, as Macdonald is Canadian.
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u/SlideItIn100 8d ago
The Eight by Katherine Neville
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u/doodles2019 8d ago
Ha, this was the first thought that popped into my head. Have you read the sequel at all? It’s not as good I don’t think, but still enjoyable
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u/FlattopMaker 8d ago edited 8d ago
if you liked The Eight, suggest The Dumas Club or The Flanders Panel, both by Arturo Perez-Reverte
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u/Serious_Session7574 8d ago
Vurt by Jeff Noon.
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u/rev9of8 8d ago edited 8d ago
This is an absolutely awesome suggestion but it's depressing how it's disappeared down the memory hole. There was a point in time in Nineties Britain where, if you belonged to certain sub-cultures, everybody had read it. Nowadays, it's not even in print.
In a sort of similar vein, I'd say Michael Marshall Smith's Spares. Everyone seems to know that the Michael Bay film The Island rips off the film Clonus: The Parts Horror but they're generally unaware that Dreamworks, who produced the film, had an option on Smith's novel and the film went into production pretty much as soon as that option expired. Smith has commented on the similarities but decided to let it lie.
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u/sodaface 8d ago
Don't understand why more people don't know of smith. Only forward is fantastic.
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u/roslahala 8d ago
The Copper Crown by Patricia Kennealy Morrison. The pre-St. Patrick Irish folk escape on their spaceship to find a new planet to inhabit, and take all their magic with them. Thousands of years later earthlings meet up with them again, and the story unfolds. Everyone i explain this book to (it's a trilogy) thinks it sounds crazy and too far out there to be good, but i loved the mix of ancient folklore and magic with scientific advances. Will somebody please read this book so i can quit obsessing about it every time this question is asked?
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u/grainia99 8d ago
I have been trying to remember the names of these books forever. I read them years ago and loved them but then lost the books in a move. I honestly was starting to think I made them up. Thank you!
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u/dubious_unicorn 8d ago
Slackjaw by Jim Knipfel. A funny memoir about the author's experience of going blind. It's hilarious! Currently out of print, not available in ebook form. His book Quitting the Nairobi Trio is a funny memoir about being committed to a mental institution, it's also great.
Along the same lines, but much more well known is Easy Crafts for the Insane by Kelly Williams Brown, which is a funny memoir about suicidal depression.
If anyone knows of any other funny memoirs about "dark" subjects, tell me about them, I really enjoy them.
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u/chickenstalker99 8d ago
It's not completely unknown, but is somewhat obscure: The Purple Cloud, a post-apocalyptic, "last man" novel by M.P. Shiel that blew my mind. It was praised by H.G. Wells and Lovecraft, but I don't hear it mentioned much today.
After inadvertently triggering the end of humanity by releasing metric tons of cyanide gas into Earth's atmosphere, a polar explorer returns to civilization to find everyone dead, and himself alone upon the earth.
Going from slightly mad to full-blown madman, he begins planning elaborate entertainments where he ritually destroys entire cities by fire. He travels throughout Europe, carefully setting up his very elaborate disasters. He also decides to build himself a palace fit for a Sultan, but construction problems and a sinking foundation enrage him and soon he's off to burn cities again.
Eventually, he discovers another person who is alive.
The opening of the book is straightforward and perhaps even a bit dull. Once Adam Jeffson reaches the pole, the entire book becomes a fever dream which just goes on and on, headlong into chaos and rage.
I was absolutely transfixed each time I read it. Quite engrossing, and he seldom lingered overlong on the really crazy parts. It could have been a bit more brisk, but overall the pacing was nicely done. A classic in my eyes.
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u/Condomonium 8d ago
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
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u/BrightCarver 8d ago
So good. I thought the follow-up book, Children of God, was less satisfying, but it really switched up some assumptions I had about how The Sparrow ended.
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u/Fyrentenemar 8d ago
To Reign in Hell - Steven Brust (at least no one I've ever mentioned it to has heard of it).
It's a retelling of the revolution of the angels told mostly from Lucifer's side. It does a good job making him a sympathetic character without completely villainizing either side imo.
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u/Immortal_Porpoise 8d ago
Brust is such a great author. My personal favorite is his novel Agyar. I can't say too much about it without giving things away, but it's amazing storytelling. The book begins with a brief note, written from one character to another. The meaning of the note is absolutely clear, and yet your understanding of it shifts significantly throughout the book and is totally inverted by the end. I remember finishing the last page, immediately turning back to the opening bit and being shocked at how well things fit together.
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u/anonykitten29 8d ago
Camilla, by Madeleine L'Engle. A not-well-known work by her, it's a beautiful, melancholic, autumnal NYC story. Very much like a feminine Catcher in the Rye.
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u/nowellmaybe 8d ago
This will be buried, but whenever anyone I know talks about a great read, I tell them to check out "The Book of Dave" by Will Self.
It is incredible how the book starts out damn near unreadable (it's written the way the Cockney English speak), but about 1/3 through, you don't even notice it anymore.
It's never going to be a classic, the storyline is mostly ok.
I returned to it years later and flipped to near the end and it was pretty much unrecognizable as a language, but I remembered how it somehow "clicked" in my brain at a certain point.
If for no other reason, I recommend this book as a fun brain game to remind others that their noggin is capable of making sense out of anything, given time and interest.
I read it just before deploying to Afghanistan. I credit it greatly with helping me communicate with the ANA soldiers I worked with.
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u/Dimonah 8d ago
True confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. Such a good book!
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u/chickzilla 8d ago
I feel like this may just be "none of your contemporaries have heard of it" because in the 90s around me, you weren't a real middle school girl unless you had at least one dogeared copy of this book.
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u/GillyField2 8d ago
Your comment gave me the biggest chuckle. I just flashed back to the spring of 1992. About 5 girls in my class (Montessori, so 4th - 6th graders) were obsessed after getting it at the book fair. I remember us sitting on the blacktop, backs against the chain link fence, reading all through recess. Thanks for sparking a great memory.
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u/TikTrd 8d ago
This and Julie of the Wolves were my two favorite books when I was around 9 or 10. Absolutely loved them!
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u/mlledufarge 8d ago
Yes! We read this in my fifth-grade accelerated reading class. Sticks with me still, thirty years later.
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u/Sagiman1 8d ago
As a kid I loved Children of the Dragon by Rose Estes. Never was a sequal. I’m sad to this day that the story took me in and left me hanging to never be reconciled.
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u/smolbookboi 8d ago
Mine is Embers by Sándor Márai — a devastating account of one man’s life and marriage through the lens of his intense friendship with another man. Originally published in Hungary in 1942 but wasn’t released in English until 2001. Absolutely brilliant writing and a beautiful, but harsh, outlook on the world—not surprising considering the time & location. Wouldn’t recommend it to everyone but it’s stuck with me for years and I do recommend it for anyone who likes a good rumination on someone’s life and is okay with lots of internal narration and memory rather than a lot of dialogue and action.
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u/IdentityToken 8d ago
My Hungarian grandmother was so excited when the English translation came out because she finally got to share her favourite book with me.
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u/Aaaddde 8d ago
Thr Gray House is a beautiful book. I'm surprised it doesnt have a bigger following outside Russia and its satellites but for some reason I think it is popular in Eastern Europe as well given tbe translations available.It is much darker than Harry Porter and I hope it isnt a children's book in Russia. Maybe Lord of the Flies is a better comparison but much darker and less an exploration of the human condition. The voilence was simply matter of fact.
The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born is a book that should be more popular in my opinion. The themes are universal and depressingly current. The setting is a West African country in the 60's which may limit his appeal but folks should certainly look to broaden the geography of their literature.
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u/Merokie 8d ago
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.
Haven't read it as an adult but read it over and over as a young teen. Other than my sisters, I've never met anyone else who has read it.
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u/propernice books books books 8d ago
This one has a movie with Jane Fonda, so it may be known because of that, but They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy. I wrote a paper about in college, and the only other person I know who has read it IRL is my former professor.
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u/wafflequest 8d ago
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
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u/0wlington 8d ago
Holy shit. I read this when I was about 15. I borrowed it from my dad when I lived in the Australian bush.. Skip forward and I'm 43, just had a massive upheaval in my life and I'm unpacking some stuff from a country market, because I've just moved back to the rural areas from the city. In a suitcase is a book with a blue feather on the cover . Illusions. Tales of a Reluctant Messiah. I've been living in my dad's campervan for the last two months (it's been rough), and I've left it for him in one of his draws full of crystals and rocks he's found along his journey.
It's just a kind of nice thing to happen.
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u/jexbingo 8d ago
The Crown Snatchers My brother got it from our library when we were younger, so of course I had to take it and read it too. It's interactive and creepy but fun and weird. I was lucky enough to get a copy from a seller on Amazon years ago as it's out of print. I reread it every few years, have read it to my kids and lend it out to those I trust.
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u/letstacoboutbooks 8d ago
I read a bunch of pretty obscure literary fiction. Two favorites that are not well known are:
Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash. Sharp writing that doesn’t hold back and explores some deep internal places within a troubled young man who happens to be an orphaned college wrestler in North Dakota obsessed with being the best.
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. A very gentle, languid novel of a man at a crossroads. I remember finishing the book thinking nothing much happened and yet I found myself very effected by it. There’s an excellent chapter where he visits his mother’s/childhood home on the Louisiana bayou that I found very transportive. Excellent in audio.
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u/hellocloudshellosky 8d ago
Love both your recs! But is The Moviegoer now considered obscure? I’ve always thought of it as one of the acknowledged great novels from the South, maybe the great Louisiana/NOLA novel.
Or maybe it’s just cuz in Reddit years, I’m approximately 154 years old.
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u/Chipmunk_Minimum 8d ago
The Gray House is also my favourite book of all time! It’s nice to see some appreciation for it
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u/criticalhash 8d ago
Not at all unknown but lesser known Something Happened by Joseph Heller, kind of overwritten modern america dark satire
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u/NoGrapefruitToday 8d ago edited 8d ago
Two YA novels:
Banner in the Sky, by James Ramsey Ullman
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
It's probably been 25+ years since I've read them. Banner's about a young man who dreams of climbing a mountain. My Side's about a young boy who manages to figure out how to live on his own in the forrest, making a home out of the inside of a tree and having a hawk as a working pet.
I guess both are about learning how to depend on yourself and overcoming challenges.
Looks like these books have been in print since the 50's, with Banner having a study guide, so maybe a lot of people have heard of them. But I've never seen them on anyone else's bookshelves.
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u/kmmontandon 8d ago
“My Side of the Mountain” was at least a bit better known with kids up through the ‘80s.
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u/dreamsofaninsomniac 8d ago
She also wrote the "Julia of the Wolves" series. Loved those books when I was a kid.
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u/Roadwarriordude 8d ago
My side of the mountain is read in a lot of schools. My class read it in 4th grade in 2003ish.
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u/dwarfmade_modernism 8d ago
Did you read Hatchet? Those books were great. I read the first in school
I didn't understand at the time, but later appreciated how the character struggles to return to society after his ordeal. I think it was the first time I saw a character in a YA book deal with the traumatic events they encounter.
Highly recommend!
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u/Fyrentenemar 8d ago
In middle school I read My Side of the Mountain, On the Other Side of the Mountain, and Frightful's Mountain. So good.
I also really enjoyed the Hatchet books by Gary Paulsen which are in the same Y.A. survivalist genre (I just looked it up and apparently there's five books and I've only read three of them, huh)
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u/flesh_crucifix 8d ago
Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France.
Absolutely brilliant concept, and fantastic satire! I loved the characters, and it kept me laughing all the way through!
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u/StrangeJourney 8d ago
United States of Japan. What if Japan won World War 2 and annexed the US, and had giant mechs?
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u/Chamama13 8d ago
Season of Passage by Christopher Pike. Astronauts go to Mars and of course bad things happen. Love this book so much
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u/voivoivoi183 8d ago
I read The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell and its sequel a few years back and enjoyed the hell out of both of them but I don’t think they’re very well known. I’d recommend them to anyone.
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u/tolkienfan2759 8d ago
The House of Real Love, by Carla Tomaso... lesbian fiction and the writing is acid sharp and unforgettable, kind of like a spoonful of ground glass. Her Matricide was pretty good too
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u/thornybacon 8d ago
The Year Of Intelligent Tigers by Kate Orman.
Remember that one-off Doctor Who TV Movie in 1996 that starred Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor? Well, between 1997-2005 the BBC released a 73 long book series following the 8th Doctor, this is number 46 in that series.
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Year_of_Intelligent_Tigers_(novel)
It's a engrossing story and wonderful character study of the Doctor and how truly alien he can be at times, Hitchemus is a beautifully realised world and the 'Tigers' of the title are far more interesting and unusual that most Doctor Who antagonists.
It's kinda hard to explain but the prose has a weirdly lyrical quality to it? Almost like you are reading a musical? (which is fitting as it's set on a planet of muscians).
The first review on this page sums it up far better than I could:
https://thetimescales.com/Story/story.php?audioid=1843
It's probably my favourite novel in the entire range and quite possibly my favourite Dr Who story overall.
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u/Penguinthor 8d ago
Virals series by Kathy Reichs. It’s my favorite childhood series and I’ve never met another person who has read them :( I still reread them
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u/Hbnobles 8d ago
I’ve seen hardly anyone talk about The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. It and the subsequent books are amazing
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u/Griech2 8d ago
The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay (1989)
Not sure how well known this novel is but it has been a favorite of mine for 25 years. The story is about a boy growing up in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s.
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u/TooManySorcerers 8d ago
Not a book, but a now-completed web serial called Worm. I wouldn't say it's unheard of, but I don't really know anyone who has heard of or read it.
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u/Rustymarble 8d ago edited 8d ago
Memory and Dream by Charles deLint
Follows a group of artistic bohemian friends from the 70s into the 80s. Has magic paintings that come to life and the artist deals with what happens to the creatures when her paintings are burned.