Little known books...

[fajrdrako]

January 24, 2008: What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

I suppose a lot of my favourite books are fairly obscure. It's hard to know... Have other people read the Eugenides books by Megan Whelan Turner, the Macedon universe books of Karin Lowachee, the works of Dorothy Dunnett, Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword, The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox, the wonderful books of Mary Doria Russell?

Yes, some people have. In some cases I read them because they were recommended to me. But most of the above I found on my own, and I'd venture to say that they aren't books that have been read by all - even if they've won awards, or been nominated for them. Even though they are so exquisitely good.

Some of my favourite books are those which have been read by everybody, or at least heard of: Jane Eyre, the Bujold novels, the Georgette Heyer novels, the Baroness Orczy novels - that's the Scarlet Pimpernel, for the uninitiated. Precious Bane was once famous, though maybe isn't now. Shellabarger's books were made into movies. Horatio Hornblower is famous, and so is Charles Dickens.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Well, I know all of the books you've mentioned -- but at least some of them because you burbled on about them! (The Vintner's Luck, for example).

Less known books: I have to divide this between my Girlsown-friends and my non-Girlsown friends. The non-GO ones haven't read anything by Antonia Forest (whom I love), or Jean Webster's two Patty books (I think The Virgil Strike in Just Patty aka Patty and Priscilla is one of my all-time favourite funny short stories, but it's not one that others will have read.) Or I could blether on about why The Imp at Westcombe by Irene Smith or The Fortunes of Billy by Pamela Grant are perfect examples of the girls' school story at its best -- but hardly anyone else will have even heard of them.

My suspicion is that most of the "rarer" books I love have simply gone out of fashion because they're pre-1970 (not that I'm much older than that, but I always liked old books). They were popular in their time, but not now.

Trying to think of authors who are good but less known: Kate Fenton (Lions and Liquorice). Maybe Nelson Bond (Lancelot Biggs)? Hmmmm... Honestly, it's hard to think of author names based on their obscurity! You tend to forget them, on the whole.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to guess what books other people will or will not have heard of. It depends on so many factors - their taste, their location, availability. And as you say, sometimes it's just a matter of availability due to time. Some of the authors I mentioned were best sellers in their day, but long out of print now. So what are they? Obscure or not?