# Recommend a Delightful, Old, Forgotten Book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660 "2007-06-20T00:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/21 "2007-06-20T09:12:13Z")
[QUOTE=K364] [“The Twenty-One Balloons”](http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-One-Balloons-William-Pene-Bois/dp/0140320970) by William Pene Du Bois [/QUOTE] I loved that book! Was he the same author that wrote _Peter Graves_, also? Hmm, children’s books to add to the list…most of them courtesy of Scholastic Book Services… a) Alexander Key’s _The Forgotten Door_. Great science fiction from the author of _Escape to Witch Mountain_. b) Mickie Davidson’s _Helen Keller’s Teacher_. The _Miracle Worker_ story but with a lot more back-story on Annie Sullivan, her childhood etc, and very well written. c) Mary Nickerson Wallace’s _The Ghost of Dibble Hollow_. Cute entertaining ghost story. d) Eleanor Clymer’s _Search for a Living Fossil_. The coelacanth discovery story. e) J. Allan Bosworth’s _All the Dark Places_. Nailbiter about going caving (spelunking) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/22 "2007-06-20T11:21:21Z")
A: Anything by P. G. Wodehouse. The man was an artist with the english language. He’s directly responsible for Monty Python and Douglas Adams. B: The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, vols 1, 2, and 3. Pure, unadulterated wonder in paperback covers. All the really, really, really good stuff. C: Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series, and Richard Stark’s books as well. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/23 "2007-06-20T11:39:58Z")
[QUOTE=Elysian] Emergence by Robert Palmer. So fun and amusing, and no one’s read it but me! [/QUOTE] \< waves hand \> I have, and his other book _Threshold_, also good even if it was written like the start of a series. Some older obscure books I like : _Traveller in Black_ by John Brunner, about a “quiet man dressed in black who carries a staff made of light” who has “many names but one nature”, and whose job is to drive back Chaos. _God Stalk_,by PC Hodgell, about a monotheist outcast girl with amnesia who ends up in a city with thousands of gods. _The Seven Towers_ by Patricia Wrede; her first book I think. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/24 "2007-06-20T11:47:24Z")
[Andrew Henry’s Meadow](http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Henrys-Meadow-Doris-Burn/dp/0970739923/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8662490-2230253?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182339582&sr=8-1) by Doris Burn. A must-read for any child, _especially_ one with budding engineering tendencies. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/25 "2007-06-20T11:49:05Z")
\*\*Lost Men Of American History \*\* by Stuart Holbrook. If you want to learn about the American who build a working submarine during the Revolutionary War, or the man in New England who was persecuted for wearing a beard, or … ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/26 "2007-06-20T12:12:15Z")
I’d recommend any of HG well’s books-how about “THE ISLAND of Dr. Moreau”? Remarkably prescient-written about a scientist making bizarre anim,als, long before DNA was known. Or: "men Like Gods’-a good read. Wells is writing from the perspective of a mid-Victorian, long before the modern scientific age-which is a unique view of the world. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/27 "2007-06-20T12:17:23Z")
Mick Farren’s _The Texts of Festival_ – a post-apocalypse Old West culture with religion based on late-1950s rock music. There’s a tribe of barbarian raiders on motorcycles, too! _Ringstones_ by Sarban – a subtle but weirdly engrossing Brit-style horror novel about evil faeries _Seance On A Wet Afternoon_ it’s either a crime novel or a ghost story, either way it’s gritty and suspenseful and you believe every word of it. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2007, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/28 "2007-06-20T12:22:48Z")
Some of these books aren’t “forgotten” by any means, but I’ll allow that they’re not as well known as they ought to be. I realize that I might make some of the same errors, but: > [@](#): > > 1. Alan E. Nourse, whose books sadly do NOT occupy the N section in the sci fi aisle. Pretty much all of them, but particularly worthy of mention = The Universe Between and The Mercy Men I’d add his **Bladerunner** , which has nothing to do with the Ridley Scott film (except that in the end credits they thanked Nourse for letting them use the title). Excellent medical science fiction that takes a chilling but plausible little idea and extrapolates it to its logical conclusion. **Night of the Jabberwock** by Fredric Brown. Until about 15 years ago you could count on someone reprinting one Fredric Brown mystery a year, but i never see them anymore. I knew Brown as a science fiction and fantasy author, but Martin Gardner’s mention of this in his _Annotated Alice_ made me seek it out, and it’s worth it. So are his other mysteries, if you can find them anymore. Also highly recommended is **The Fabulous Clipjoint** , which got him an Edgar. **Crispin Magicker** by Mark M. Lowenthal – Interesting fantasy novel. I’ve only ever seen one copy of it, which I own. I’ve never even encounterede anyone who read it (aside from the guy I bought it from), but I’ll bet that’ll change now. **The Snouters** – a German book on the evolution of large-nosed rodent-like creatures that have, like Darwin’s Galapagos finches, evolved to fill all niches on their island. It’s been translated into English, and I got my copy at the American Museum of Natural History: Snouters: > **[The Tall-Tale Creature Gallery](https://hoaxes.org/animals/P20/)** > > Tall-Tale Creature-ology is a branch of Natural History dedicated to the study of fauna and flora of a fantastic and > remarkable nature. The Hoax Museum neither denies nor confirms the existence of any of these species. Book (out of print): [The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades: Stumpke, Harald, Illus. by Gerolf Steiner: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Snouters-Form-Life-Rhinogrades/dp/B000HB93RI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6649998-6173432?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182342132&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/29 "2007-06-20T12:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=DLuxN8R-13] Mick Farren’s _The Texts of Festival_ – a post-apocalypse Old West culture with religion based on late-1950s rock music. There’s a tribe of barbarian raiders on motorcycles, too! 1960s, I meant to say. :smack: :smack: :smack: One damned typo can bugger-up the whole meaning of a sentence from Hell to breakfast. el deluxo – who was a mere guest and could not self-edit. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/30 "2007-06-20T12:48:48Z")
**The Golden Kazoo** by John C. Schneider. Hilarious, **Catch-22** -like novel about a presidential campaign, where the candidate doesn’t matter and everything he does is scripted and, essentially, he is sold like laundry detergent. The kicker is that the book came out in **1956** , a dozen years before **The Selling of the President** and clearly foresaw the direction in which political campaigns were going (it was written even before Eisenhower’s successful ad-oriented campaign that year). It was also set in 1960 (or 1964 in a revised edition), making it one of the few science fiction novels whose predictions were accurate (it even postulated a supercomputer). Of course, it’s very difficult to find. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/31 "2007-06-20T13:01:32Z")
Apparently, my book is a little too obscure; I couldn’t find much of a link (at least not in English). [Here](http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Other-Fairy-Tales-Fables/dp/0916144097/ref=sr_1_15/104-1337801-6468703?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182343078&sr=8-15) it is at Amazon, sans image or review. It’s called The Wily Witch, and All the Other Fairy Tales and Fables, by Godfried Bomans. This is a children’s book of fairy tales, yes, but unlike any other I’ve read. The stories are wry, ironic, humorous, some gory, some with meanings I couldn’t understand when I read them as a child. The illustrations…the only word that fits is exquisite. Like **Auntie Pam** , I’m not much of a book describer, but I would say that of all the books I have read in my lifetime, this has been a consistent favorite. In fact, I have just decided to buy copies for all the kids on my Christmas list this year. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/32 "2007-06-20T13:13:39Z")
Half-Magic by Edward Eager, which I now find out is a children’s classic. I pulled off the library shelf when I was 8 or 9 and my grandmother ended up paying for it because I kept it for months reading it over and over and over again. Then there was this book that I _think_ is very well known, but I do not remember the name. It’s about a boy who runs away to the woods. He boils water in a leaf and does all sorts of things to survive. When I was a child reading this book, I thought it was non-fiction but now I’m not so sure. Lastly, I read this book when I was a little older-- Dibs, In Search of Self. I may have been in Junior High and it was then I decided I wanted to be a child psycologist. Which I never did become, btw. Still, the book stuck with me for years. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/33 "2007-06-20T13:17:51Z")
**The Pearl** , _Steinbeck_. A timeless tale dealing with the problems of suddenly acquiring wealth, dealing with greed and disruption of family. Nice short read, about 100 pages. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/34 "2007-06-20T13:20:23Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] Then there was this book that I _think_ is very well known, but I do not remember the name. It’s about a boy who runs away to the woods. He boils water in a leaf and does all sorts of things to survive. When I was a child reading this book, I thought it was non-fiction but now I’m not so sure. [/QUOTE] I’m thinking it must be [My Side of The Mountain.](http://www.amazon.com/Side-Mountain-Puffin-Modern-Classics/dp/0142401110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1337801-6468703?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182345535&sr=8-1) Good book! ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/35 "2007-06-20T13:44:32Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] I’m thinking it must be [My Side of The Mountain.](http://www.amazon.com/Side-Mountain-Puffin-Modern-Classics/dp/0142401110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1337801-6468703?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182345535&sr=8-1) Good book! [/QUOTE] Yes, that’s it! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/36 "2007-06-20T14:32:22Z")
MizTina: I had totally forgotten about this book - thanks so much for reminding me of it! Off to [biblio.com](http://biblio.com) to get a copy! VCNJ~ [QUOTE=MizTina] Oh Ye Jigs & Juleps! by Virginia Cary Hudson. If you read slow, it’ll take you 30 minutes, if you read fast, 10. All of 50 pages, and if you aren’t religious, it’s still funny. T [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/37 "2007-06-20T14:48:34Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] Just for that, I’m going to slit you from your guggle to your zatch, and feed you to the Todal. 🙂 [/QUOTE] And I’ll squuck his thrug till all he can whupple is geep! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/38 "2007-06-20T15:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=Elysian] Emergence by Robert Palmer. So fun and amusing, and no one’s read it but me! [/QUOTE] Wait a minute – maybe it’s a different book than the one I was thinking of. Did you mean David R. Palmer, not Robert Palmer? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/39 "2007-06-20T16:06:03Z")
Not all that old - 1956, so 51 years - but I will nominate [The Last Hurrah, by Edwin O’Connor](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Hurrah-Edwin-OConnor/dp/B000K1Z7X4/ref=sr_1_1/105-1952414-7142866?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182353702&sr=1-1). A delightful, insightful book on old-school, big-time politics - just a wonderful story with richly-drawn characters… ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660/40 "2007-06-20T16:09:48Z")
I’ll recommend two of my favorites from childhood: [An Old-Fashioned Girl](http://www.amazon.com/Old-Fashioned-Girl-Louisa-May-Alcott/dp/0517148080/ref=sr_oe_3_1/103-5463812-4167054?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182355327&sr=1-3) by Louisa May Alcott and [Magic Elizabeth](http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Elizabeth-Norma-Kassirer/dp/0064407489/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5463812-4167054?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182355510&sr=1-1) by Norma Kassirer [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-delightful-old-forgotten-book/408660.md?page=3)