# Recommend me books I might never hear of **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 14, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530 "2005-03-14T22:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/21 "2005-03-15T13:15:37Z")
This link goes to the review I wrote in my LiveJournal of [An African in Greenland](http://www.livejournal.com/users/delphica/164687.html) . I think the OP would enjoy this book, because he mentions several books that were written by “unexpected” authors. This memoir is about exactly what it’s title claims to be about, an African guy who moves to Greenland. It’s fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/22 "2005-03-15T13:19:21Z")
[_The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195101707/qid=1110892680/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/102-9051163-0638528?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) (aka _Epitaph of a Small Winner_), by 19th-century Brazilian writer [Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machado_de_Assis). If _Tristram Shandy_ had been written by a 19th century Brazilian whose father was descended from slaves and whose mother was a washerwoman, and if it started at the end of the protagonist’s life instead of at his conception, and if it were much more pessimistic, it might have looked a lot like _The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas_. Also recommend _Dom Casmurro_, by the same author. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/23 "2005-03-15T13:23:09Z")
> [@Selkie](#): > > Although not exactly obscure, far too few people have read [The Beak of the Finch](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067973337X/qid=1110888000/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0351094-3859867) > > I’m not at all sure why [Lives of the Monster Dogs](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446674168/qid=1110888073/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0351094-3859867?v=glance&s=books) has attracted so many negative reviews on Amazon, because although it’s a minor book, it has stuck with me through many years long after more “important” works have faded from memory. It’s odd, poignant, and not what one would expect from the premise. Hey! I read and really enjoyed both of those books. Really, really good. I second the recomendation. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/24 "2005-03-15T17:38:05Z")
_A Fan’s Notes_ was famous once upon a time. Fame is fleeting. I was going to give a few more books like that but that’s not what the OP asked for. So, Pamela Wharton Blanpied, _Dragons: An Introduction to the Modern Infestation_ Dmitri A. Borgmann, _Beyond Language_ Jack Butler, _Jujitsu for Christ_ Bill Carmichael, _Incredible Collectors, Weird Antiques, and Odd Hobbies_ Smokestack El Ropo’s _Bedside Reader_ Edmund G. Love, _Arsenic and Red Tape_ Mark Ramsden, _The Dungeonmaster’s Apprentice_ _Gesta Romanorum, or Entertaining Moral Stories_ translated by Charles Swan and Wynnard Hooper ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/25 "2005-03-15T17:46:41Z")
Non-fiction (which you should read every once in a while, you know): [Last Chance to See](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345371984/qid=1110909706/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3407726-4516802?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Douglas Adams (yes, that Douglas Adams) and Mark Carwardine Fiction: [Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380813815/qid=1110909781/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3407726-4516802) by Christopher Moore - not at all what you might think it is ---
**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:** [March 15, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/26 "2005-03-15T17:48:58Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > It is a great book, I suppose, but after reading it the only thing I can actually remember is how squicked out I was over the brutal pirate mass rape-slaughter. You don’t remember the secret of the sacred eggplant (which is an actual historical document, BTW. As a matter of fact, Ebeneezer Cooke did exist and did write a poem named “The Sot-Weed Factor.”)? > [@](#): > > But then I’m such an idiot I had to plow through **Gravity’s Rainbow** _three times_ before anything would stick with me besides the shit-eating scene, the disgusting English candy scene, and “You never did the Kenosha Kid.” I think the English candy scene is the single funniest scene in English literature (not counting plays). It was one of the few things that made me laugh out loud every time I read it. And you never did the Kenosha, Kid. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/27 "2005-03-15T17:58:35Z")
My standard recommendation in these threads: [_The English Passengers_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/038549744X/qid=1110910352/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4183601-3256114?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). You can add several Dopers to the list of people who have thanked me for telling them about it. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/28 "2005-03-15T18:29:48Z")
> [@Zahava424](#): > > Anything by Jose Saramago. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, but not as well known as he should be. I just picked up _All The Names_ by Jose Saramago at a tag sale for $1.00. It sounded very intriguing. Maybe I should move it up in my To-Be-Read pile. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/29 "2005-03-15T18:30:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I think the English candy scene is the single funniest scene in English literature (not counting plays). It was one of the few things that made me laugh out loud every time I read it. And you never did the Kenosha, Kid. My favorite scene in _Gravity’s Rainbow_ is the huge orgy onboard the _Anubis_ as it floats down the Rhine river, if only for the phrase “There was a general withdrawing from orfices.” ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/30 "2005-03-15T20:02:45Z")
Thought of another couple: [Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iragi Village](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385014856/qid=1110917744/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0351094-3859867) [Objects of Desire: The Lives of Antiques and Those Who Pursue Them](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140244808/qid=1110917997/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0351094-3859867) **Athena** , aside from the person who pressed a copy of _Monster Dogs_ into my hands, you’re the first person I’ve met who has read it. Wow. Thanks for removing the feeling that I’m the only person in the world who has heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/31 "2005-03-15T20:22:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I think the English candy scene is the single funniest scene in English literature (not counting plays). It was one of the few things that made me laugh out loud every time I read it. And you never did the Kenosha, Kid. “I never did.” –The Kenosha Kid And let’s not forget the law firm of Saltieri, Poore, Nash, DeBrutus, and Short. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/32 "2005-03-15T20:55:40Z")
I didn’t see these mentioned, but I surely must have missed them. :rolleyes: _The Alexandria Quartet (Justine , Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea)_ by Lawrence Durrell _The Magus_, _The Collector_ and _French Lieutenant’s Woman_ by John Fowles He also wrote some interesting non-fiction like, \* The Aristos: A Self-Portrait of Ideas\* and _The Enigma of Stonehenge_. James Clavel’s _Sho-gun_ and the rest of his Asia Saga _Aztec_, _Raptor_, and _The Journeyer_ by Gary Jennings ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/33 "2005-03-16T01:18:22Z")
Great posts, so far I think we’re up to almost 60 titles, and several authors whose various works I should check out. I think I’m aiming for at least 100; non-fiction is important, I agree, and if you look at the list of other previous recc. you’ll see a lot of those titles, but anything is good- this is just one of those posts I do to keep my thread at the top of the page 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/34 "2005-03-16T05:36:15Z")
Another vote for _The Sot-Weed Factor_. A book that i’m sure you’ve heard of, but that has not been mentioned in your lists or in this thread: Erich Maria Remarque, _All Quiet on the Western Front_ As an American historian, i have to recommend a few autobiographies and other works by important historical figures:[ul] [li]Henry Adams, _The Education of Henry Adams_ (already on one of your lists)[/li][li]Benjamin Franklin, _The Autobiography_[/li][li]Frederick Douglass, _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave_[/li][li]Jane Addams, _Twenty Years at Hull House_[/li][li]W.E.B. Du Bois, _The Souls of Black Folk_[/li][li]Hector St. J. Crevecoeur, _Letters from an American Farmer_[/li][/ul] Also, a book that gets trashed by many literary types, but is historically important and, i think, underrated as a piece of literature: Harriet Beecher Stowe, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. Finally, in deference to my background, a quick plug for an Australian author (or two):[ul] [li]Xavier Herbert, _Capricornia_ (novel)[/li][li]Jill Kerr Conway, _The Road from Coorain_ (memoir/autobiography)[/li][li]Bernard Smith, _The Boy Adeodatus: Portrait of a Lucky Young Bastard_ (memoir/autobiography)[/li]the novels of Peter Carey[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/35 "2005-03-16T06:09:07Z")
Put me down as another vote for **Uncle Tom’s Cabin**. In a similar vein (once incredibly popular books which are rarely read today), I suggest Horatio Alger’s **Ragged Dick** , both for style (believe it or not, the book is genuinely funny in places) and for a look at NY City in the 1800s, including childhood homelessness, Wall Street, anti-Irish stereotypes (one of Tom’s nemeses is Mickey McGuire, and he resides with a slovenly Irish landlady at one point) and con artists. Even better: Tom and a young friend visit the site where Central Park is being constructed! I was on quite a Horatio Alger kick for several years. If you can’t lay hands on a reprint, you can easily buy an old copy of \*\*Ragged Dick \*\* on Ebay. (There are many other titles out there, but Ragged Dick is the best, IMHO.) I also heartily recommend Jessica Mitford’s \*\*The American Way of Death \*\* (non-fiction), an old expose’ of the funeral industry. It was updated sometime in the 80s. but I’d go with the original version if you can get your hands on it. If I wanted to give young people an insight into the way business really works in this country, I’d go with this book. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/36 "2005-03-16T06:19:01Z")
**Under the Skin** , by Michel Faber. It is disturbing, could make you laugh or cry or be sick depending on your mood and which part of it you’re reading at the time. I’ve never forgotten it and it’s been nearly four years since I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/37 "2005-03-16T06:50:47Z")
Most of these aren’t obscure and a couple are actually compilations of short stories, but they are some of my favorite books – the ones that stuck around when Mom made me clear out my bookcases. [Perfume: The Story of a Murderer](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375725849/ref=pd_pym_ka/104-7064825-3082335) by Patrick Suskind is one of the best books I’ve read in years. It has some very interesting things to say about identity – tying it up with scent to a sort of aura of self-knowledge/identity. The writing is incredibly lush, too, rather like a good perfume. You’ve no doubt already read _Dubliners_ by James Joyce, but if you haven’t, you should. I found [Impossible Saints](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156006596/104-7064825-3082335?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by Michele Roberts to be excellent. [The Passion](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802135226/qid=1110954733/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-7064825-3082335) by Jeannette Winterson falls into the same genre. [Rain of Scorpions and Other Stories](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0927534290/ref=lpr_g_1/104-7064825-3082335?v=glance&s=books) by Estela Portillo Trambley sort of falls into the same category (calling it women’s lit demeans them somehow), but it usually is classified as Chicano lit. Machiavelli’s [The Prince](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553212788/qid=1110955383/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-7064825-3082335), just because an English major with a minor in history should read it. [Wisconsin Death Trip](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826321933/qid=1110956205/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-7064825-3082335) is fascinating. Completely destroys any concept you had of an idyllic Midwest at the turn of the 19th century. Plus it has pictures! I also recommend picking up some of Christopher Marlowe’s plays, since most English classes go something like, “Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays and was the greatest playwright the English speaking world has ever known. He was magnificent, a veritable God of English literary virtue. Also, Kit Marlowe wrote some stuff.” I’m not arguing that Shakespeare wasn’t magnificent, but, jeez, cut the guy who gave us _Dr. Faustus_ some slack. Finally, if you’ve read up on Engels and Marx and other 19th century German philosophers, I suggest you pick up [Freedom & Necessity](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812562615/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_8/104-7064825-3082335?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) by Steven Brust and Emma Bull. It’s an epistolary novel set in the early Victorian period, against the seamy world of industrial England. It’s not quite as profound as the other books suggested, but you should get a kick out of it after reading Engels . . . who I see isn’t actually on your list. Um. Read F&N anyway. I cannot tell you how happy I am that _Mists of Avalon_ is on your list. Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/38 "2005-03-16T11:16:52Z")
Magnalia Christi Americana, by Cotton Mather Fart Proudly, by Benjamin Franklin Edgar Huntley, by Charles Brockton Brown (proto-mystery novel during the days of the Indian uprisings) The Confidence Man: His Masquerade, by Herman Melville The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America, by Leo Marx Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell (an essay) Let Your Mind Alone!, by James Thurber (insightful and hilarious) A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, by Harry Crews Dien Cai Dau, by Yusef Komunyakaa (poems by a VietNam vet from New Orleans) Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment, by WS Merwin (poetry) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/39 "2005-03-16T11:50:23Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > I’m a caucasian, American male, almost 20 years old, planning on majoring in English with a minor in history, and I have some reading to do. 🙂 First, and I am not being hostile, I am rather curious why you felt the need to identify yourself as Caucasion American Male. Do Whitebreads have a different reading level or interest than your Average Black Guy or Average Jose or Chen? Just saying you are almost 20 and in college gives us a pretty good picture already. ( It’s of a drunken frat boy, if you want to know 🙂 ) Here on the Dope ( and the rest of the world but they are a little slow on the uptake.) color isn’t an issue, it is a compliment. Comprende? Secondly, YAY for you on deciding to expand your horizons in reading Great Stuff. Remember, with every Great Book, there are about 5 books after it that will be utter and complete shit. My humble suggestion: (Though, if you want a romance novel suggestion list…I could whip that out in no time.) [Night](http://http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553272535/ref=wl_it_dp/104-6871039-9048737?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I1CALX71S4KT6J&v=glance&colid=327JHLGM8SLFZ) ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530/40 "2005-03-16T12:13:16Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > First, and I am not being hostile, I am rather curious why you felt the need to identify yourself as Caucasion American Male. Do Whitebreads have a different reading level or interest than your Average Black Guy or Average Jose or Chen? Just saying you are almost 20 and in college gives us a pretty good picture already. ( It’s of a drunken frat boy, if you want to know 🙂 ) Whoa, tiger! You’re reading a lot into his little bio (which I would have rendered as “19 year old white guy”). I don’t see any insult to anyone there, even though I also wondered why he sensed the need for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-books-i-might-never-hear-of/294530.md?page=3)