# What's your favorite book that nobody else ever reads? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621 "2007-01-11T23:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/121 "2014-12-04T20:30:31Z")
> [@](#): > > **dont ask** : The book I have given away the most times is Point Last Seen by Hannah Nyala. a true account by a woman tracker of her career tracking while trying to escape an abusive partner. > > After I read most books I give them away to people I think will enjoy them and tell them to pass them on. My boss borrowed this book and she then loaned it to a friend, who loaned it to a friend etc until someone lost track of it. Not knowing I didn’t expect it back she bought a replacement copy which I in turn gave back to her to loan to the person who had asked for my copy. > > Sometime later I found 6 copies of it remaindered for $1 so I bought all of them and they are gone now. They made a good [TV movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177119/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_39) of “Point Last Seen” starring Linda Hamilton. I had to look it up because it sounded so familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/122 "2014-12-04T20:58:22Z")
Added Towing Jehovah to my Goodreads list. Thanks! My entry is [Lost in Transplantation](http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Transplantation-Memoir-Unconventional-Organ-ebook/dp/B00HG68Y1I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417726282&sr=1-1&keywords=lost+in+transplantation) by Eldonna Edwards. It is her memoir about being an altruistic kidney donor. I swear the only reason her book is not on the best-seller list is because hardly anyone knows about it. It is beautifully written and just a great all-around memoir. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/123 "2014-12-04T21:15:07Z")
[Bones of the Moon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bones_of_the_Moon) by Jonathan Carroll. Our female protagonist has an abortion. She later falls in love and has another child. However, she is transported to an alien world at night where her aborted child guides her on a quest to recover the mystical bones of the moon…to save her child’s life. No, it’s not anti-abortion; it just sounds that way in the description. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/124 "2014-12-05T00:25:00Z")
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Short, easy to read and life changing in a good way. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/125 "2014-12-05T00:37:15Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I thought I’d take a look on Goodreads at books I gave five stars to see what is the book with the fewest number of ratings. I just did the same and my winner is [Help! A Bear is Eating Me!](http://helpabeariseatingme.com/), by Mykle Hansen. It’s about an odious yuppie, who is trapped under his SUV and is, well, …see the tilte. Despite how ridiculous the premise sounds, it might be the funniest book I’ve ever read and I _think_ the audiobook mp3s are downloadable for free from the website. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/126 "2014-12-05T02:06:41Z")
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. I prefer the Waley translation although I’ve read it in a couple of others. The Seidenstricker and Tyler translations are just too rigid. This is the probably the first novel in any language. The depth of its psychological understanding is profound considering its age. Anyway, I gave a copy of this book to a boyfriend in return for a book he gave me by Richard Braughtigan–The Hawkline Monster. Yeah, it didn’t last. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/127 "2014-12-05T02:25:37Z")
Oh, come on. _Siddhartha_ a book that nobody else ever reads? It’s #4,462 on Amazon and #95 among literary classics on it. Over 100 million copies of Hermann Hesse’s books have been sold, and _Siddhartha_ is the best-selling one. It has 277,276 ratings on Goodreads. It has a Facebook page. Doing a quick search, I found 18 study guides to it in English, and there are probably some more. It’s been a major cult book for the past fifty years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/128 "2014-12-05T02:30:09Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Short, easy to read and life changing in a good way. Dude…that’s a classic. People read that all the time, don’t they? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/129 "2014-12-05T03:03:00Z")
Have you guys read it? And if Focoult’s Pendulum can make this list and others, Siddhartha can too. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/130 "2014-12-05T03:14:12Z")
[A Lion in the Way](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1134382.A_Lion_In_The_Way) by Elizabeth Cadell I found this book in the smoking room at work back in the early 2000’s, back before smoking in businesses was made illegal. I started reading it on my lunch break and took it home with me and never brought it back (which was not stealing). I have read this book at least 3 or 4 times per year since then - probably 12 or 13 years now. I love it and I wont give it to anyone because it’s MINE!!! I honestly don’t think anyone I know would enjoy it so I don’t recommend it to anyone. I don’t know of anyone else who has even heard of Elizabeth Cadell and I’ve read two of her other books and didn’t much care for them. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/131 "2014-12-05T03:15:04Z")
Yes, of course I’ve read it. It’s one of the most famous novels ever written. It’s considerably more well known than _Foucault’s Pendulum_, and that had no business being mentioned here either. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/132 "2014-12-05T03:36:55Z")
Back in the day, you couldn’t swing a hippie without hitting a copy of _Siddhartha_. Yes, I read it. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/133 "2014-12-05T11:31:04Z")
Non-fiction: _The Road to En-Dor_ by E.H. Jones. A highly unusual – and true – prisoner-of-war-escape story. The heroes are British officer POWs in Turkey in World War I: achieve their escape by perpetrating an elaborate con-game on their captors, whom they convince that they (the POWs) are in touch with the spirit world. An absorbing read, and often very funny. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/134 "2014-12-05T14:05:07Z")
I can’t believe I missed this topic years ago. Lots of good books to put on my Christmas list. My entry: \* Fifth Business \*by Robertson Davies. IMO a perfect gem of a book. Not necessarily profound or life changing, just well constructed and rich. I read it every year or two. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621/135 "2014-12-05T14:10:34Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > My entry: \* Fifth Business \*by Robertson Davies. IMO a perfect gem of a book. Not necessarily profound or life changing, just well constructed and rich. I read it every year or two. All of Robertson Davies’s works are well worth reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-that-nobody-else-ever-reads/387621.md?page=6)