# Book(s) You read that you're pretty sure nobody else has read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645 "2012-05-02T15:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/41 "2012-05-03T00:12:25Z")
I was a HUGE fan of Gregory McDonald’s _ **Fletch** _ and _ **Flynn** _ books back in the day. After reading all of them, I sought out some of McDonald’s other works: _Who Took Toby Rinaldi?_ _Dear M.E. - Love Among the Mashed Potatoes_ _Running Scared_ (his first novel. nothing to do with the Billy Crystal/Gregory Hines buddy-cop movie) _A World Too Wide_ (part of a quartet of ‘literary fiction’ he wrote; apparently he had a lot of trouble getting these published) _Skylar_ (an attempt to recapture the _Fletch_ magic with a new character. there is a second Skylar novel I haven’t read) I didn’t hate any of the above, but I wouldn’t recommend any of them either. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/42 "2012-05-03T00:29:33Z")
The Overlords of War by Gerard Klein. I picked it up in Jr. High school thinking it was a compendium of WWII or WWI biographies. It turned out to be sci-fi with a perfect time-travel loop. Still one of my favorite tales. —G! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/43 "2012-05-03T00:47:29Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Well dammit, I was going to mention the long-out-of-print **Flicker** by Theodore Roszak, but it’s been reissued as a [“Rediscovered Classic”](http://www.amazon.com/Flicker-A-Novel-Rediscovered-Classics/dp/155652577X). But if you like film, and you like books like Foucalt’s Pendulum, this is a winner. My choice was recently reprinted too. I think this shows we have good taste. 🙂 _Flicker_ is quite compelling, and creepy. I’m not sure I understood it but it had an impact. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/44 "2012-05-03T01:00:08Z")
**Cradle of the Storms** , Bernard Hubbard, S.J. Probably a whole other slew of books on Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/45 "2012-05-03T01:05:45Z")
The Destruction Of The Temple by Barry N Malzberg. In a dystopian future, a graduate student is doing his thesis. He has gone into one of the cities (abandoned by the upper classes) to film a recreation of JFK’s assassination. Then, AFAICT, the lumpen put some kind of brain implant in him and make him relive the lives and deaths of various political figures. The cover has Harlan Ellison raving about the book. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/46 "2012-05-03T01:07:42Z")
**Necrotrivia vs Skull** by Jeremy Clarke. That book was so weird I’m not even sure I read it. > **[Necrotrivia vs Skull](http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/necrotrivia_vs_skull.html)** > > Trash Fiction ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/47 "2012-05-03T01:09:09Z")
The Numerous Eyes Of The Solanum Tuberosum. It’s a dark, absurdist picture book giving instructions of performing a dance/play involving a Mister Potatohead, children dressed as tater tots, and many potatoes. I read it at the (since closed) National Potato Museum. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/48 "2012-05-03T01:10:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > To be fair, there wasn’t an English translation until 1971 and even that one was abridged. True, but why “to be fair”? Most of the people here weren’t reading books before then, anyway. Willy Ley had translated and published two of his short stories in F&SF in the 1950s. I’ve seen anothere one recently. And there _still_ isn’t a complete English translation of _Zwei Planete_. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/49 "2012-05-03T01:24:41Z")
Satan- His Psychotherapy And Cure By Cy Kassler (JSPS) This one is great. Without spoiling- Satan is incarnate in a computer built by a slightly crazed MIT professor. Cy Kassler becomes a psychologist. The drama of the years of the book is broken by seven interludes of sessions Dr Kassler has with Satan. I love this book. To Serve Man- A Cookbook For People By Karl Wurf. I got this as a freebie when I worked for Scithers. It’s funny. The illustrations are good. But the one note joke just wasn’t worth ten bucks. The Insmouth Tabernacle Choir Hymnal Hyms to Cthulu and the Old Ones. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/50 "2012-05-03T01:27:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Everything_ about Froggy was made up, including Froggy himself. The details of his death were bizarre, to say the least. His [New York Times obituary](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/nyregion/12froggy.html?_r=1) has to be read to be disbelieved. > [@](#): > > **[Where Were You Last Pluterday?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_were_you_last_Pluterday%3F)** by Paul van Herck I loved this idea. Pluterday is a extra day of the week reserved for just the superrich. Chuck and I could probably go back and forth all day mentioning obscure but great literary science fiction writers. (Obscure literary sf writer is a redundancy, of course.) Who’s ever heard of Michael Kandel? His first novel, _Strange Invasion_, was probably his best. Very dark humor. John Sladek, BTW, is one of the few good parodists in science fiction. The best is probably David Langford, who’s published two collections of them, _Dragonhiker’s Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune’s Edge, Odyssey Two_ and _He Do the Time Police in Different Voices_. He’s big in sf fandom but otherwise those collections are exactly as obscure as their titles suggest. The best mystery parodist is Jon L. Breen, but his collection, _Hair of the Sleuthhound_, is so unknown that he makes Langford look like Harry Potter by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/51 "2012-05-03T02:01:58Z")
National Sunday Law This was mass mailed to a LOT of people. I think I’m the only one who actually read it. The Catholic church is the beast of Revelations. A law mandating Sunday as the day of rest is his mark. I enjoy the rantings of the crazed and have read it cover to cover many times. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/52 "2012-05-03T07:06:15Z")
\*\*The Last Parallel \*\*by Martin Russ. A 21-year-old Marine’s diary of the last year of the Korean War. Gruesome (corpse retrieval patrol) and hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/53 "2012-05-03T11:42:37Z")
I recall the [Mushroom Planet.](http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonderful-Flight-Mushroom-Planet/dp/0316125407) I also read a truly horrible science fiction book about tanks and some kind of space war where we Terrans go and devastate some planet that we think has launched an attack on us. The point of view is from a tanker, and the author is filled with respect for how good Israelis are with tanks, despite the fact that this is the far future. Anyway, after we duke it out with the aliens, we discover we were wrong, they had done nothing, and the initial attack was just from their general direction, and some other aliens had done it, and we go off after them. This is the end of the book. I read this thing when I was at sea for a month in the subarctic Pacific ([Station P](http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/stnP/), for those of you following along at home), and the weather was horrible, and we were getting pounded day and night. The book had been left on board the ship for the edification of others I assume. It is simply the worst book I’ve ever read. I finished it, just to see if it could sustain its level of craposity. It did. _If you know the title this book, please let me know._ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/54 "2012-05-03T11:53:44Z")
Most of Nabokov’s stuff besides _Lolita_ and _Pale Fire_, my favorite being _Ada_. When I took out Ada in 1992, it was still on the shelf despite last having been checked out in the late 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/55 "2012-05-03T12:53:46Z")
I have to admit I’ve read several of the books mentioned - _The Muller-Fokker Effect_, the 1st 2 of the _Inquestor_ series by **Somtow Sucharitkul** (the other 2 are on the shelf as well but I know I’ll have to read from the beginning again eventually) the _Pluterday_ one by **Paul van Herck** , the **Michael Kandel** (and I read his next book, too, but I only kept _Strange Invasion_). _The Overlords of War_ by **Gerard Klein** ; I think I read all his books that came out round about then… _The Insmouth Tabernacle Choir Hymnal_ isn’t really very good… And currently I’m re-reading one of the first trashy sf novels I ever read - [Abandon Galaxy](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/gardner-f-fox/abandon-galaxy.htm) by **Bart Somers**! (aka Gardner F. Fox) Probably not too many people have read that one! ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/56 "2012-05-03T13:38:27Z")
Anybody else ever read [The Captain Must Die](http://www.pulpserenade.com/2011/04/captain-must-die-by-robert-colby-gold.html)? I read it when I was in 8th or 9th grade. It was in a box of “trashy” paperbacks one of my uncles gave me. His taste in reading ran heavily towards stuff like this and [Mandingo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandingo_%28novel%29) which was in the same box. TCMD was a really good read; Mandingo considerably less so. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/57 "2012-05-11T17:36:30Z")
“The Morning of the Magicians” by Pauwels and Bergier. “The Life of Sir Thomas More” by Roper. “Hitler, the Occult Messiah” by Gerald Suster. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/58 "2012-05-11T17:43:26Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Satan- His Psychotherapy And Cure By Cy Kassler (JSPS) > > This one is great. Without spoiling- Satan is incarnate in a computer built by a slightly crazed MIT professor. Cy Kassler becomes a psychologist. The drama of the years of the book is broken by seven interludes of sessions Dr Kassler has with Satan. I love this book. Read it. I love the final line. 🙂 How about **L-1 L-2 N J C** by\* J. J. Sephoj\*. Or **Nocturnal Vaudeville** by _Stephen Scheck_. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/59 "2012-05-11T19:11:57Z")
About the most obscure one I can think of is _Ten Thousand Miles Underground,_ a bad attempt at combining _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_ and _A Journey to the Center of the Earth,_ complete with stereotyped black servant! As I recall, it was written by [“Roy Rockwood”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Rockwood). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645/60 "2012-05-11T19:36:30Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > About the most obscure one I can think of is _Ten Thousand Miles Underground,_ a bad attempt at combining _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_ and _A Journey to the Center of the Earth,_ complete with stereotyped black servant! As I recall, it was written by [“Roy Rockwood”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Rockwood). [QUOTE=Roy Rockwood] [“WASHINGTON! I say Washington!” Throughout a big shed, filled for the most part with huge pieces of machinery, echoed the voice of Professor Amos Henderson. He did not look up from a small engine over which he was bending. “Washington! Where are you? Why don’t you answer me?” From somewhere underneath an immense pile of iron, steel and aluminum came the voice of a colored man. “Yas sir, Perfesser, I’se goin’ t’ saggasiate my bodily presence in yo’ contiguous proximity an’ attend t’ yo’ immediate conglomerated prescriptions at th’ predistined period. Yas, sir!”]([http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/ftmun10h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/ftmun10h.htm)) [/quote] Gold! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-s-you-read-that-youre-pretty-sure-nobody-else-has-read/620645.md?page=4)