What's your favourite random book?

All My Friends Are Superheros by Andrew Kaufman. Funny, exciting and the ending made me cry.

Hi, wondering if anyone has read The Octunnumi by Trevor Alan Foris?
It is only available as one of those magazine type books online. I have looked at the 'demo' on the web site which is quite fancy, very nice design but not much on the story so I don't know if it is suitable for her? So short of reading it my self :) Any info would be great
beckymay

I picked up Janet Street Porter’s autobiography for 10p. I don’t usually like autobiographies as they are generally ghostwritten or pompous or downright boring, but JSP’s was excellent. Very self-deprecating and drily humorous.

I've got a lot of random books (usually easy read stuff for holidays from The Works etc) but my favourite random ones are probably:
The Meaning of Liff/The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd
Starship Titanic by Terry Jones but based on an idea/video game by Douglas Adams
Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade/Never Push When It Says Pull by Guy Browning

I still have a first edition, with dust jacket, of Jonathon Livingston Seagull. Haven't looked at it in years, but I was in love with it at 18.

I remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull! It was one of those books that was everywhere at one point (am old )

My favourite obscure fiction is all by Compton Mackenzie - he's well known for Whisky Galore, but wrote lots of what are essentially early 20thC chicklit. Figure of Eight which follows the stories of a number of 'ballet girls' in their 20s & then re-visits them 20-odd years later is my most re-read, but I also love the Sylvia Scarlett sequence.

Last year I read a really entertaining book by Maxwell Parrish. It was published in the 1920s (from memory). It starts with a young woman heading off to an older friend (the spinster of the title), for some advice about a young man she wants to marry.

She's musing about her friend who is kind and sensible, but wonders, somewhat patronisingly, if her friend, being a spinster, might not understand the feeling of being young and in love.

And then we discover the backstory of the spinster and it turns out that for years she's been having a very secret and very torrid affair with a famous explorer. In fact she becomes a shipping magnate to support his expeditions.

The whole turnabout thing is so well done; it's heaps of fun. I think it must have been a very racey book in its day, but I've never met anyone else who has read it.

Mine is Jonathan Livingston Seagull (it's definitely obscure if you're my age, perhaps not if you're a bit older). It's basically about a seagull who ignores what a typical seagull should do and focuses on being the best at flight. He gets ostracised from his flock because of it but he ends up sort of transcending worlds to a better world where he meets other like-minded gulls.

I read it as a kid ("borrowed" it from my mum when she was sorting out a bunch of her old books) and have loved it ever since. There's just something about it saying that you can focus on doing what you love, even if no one understands you, and you might actually be doing the right thing.

The story of life by Chris (simpsons artist)

@KittyKlaws It's missing the front cover so I wasn't sure, but then I saw at the back the author is touting his "complete and stimulating course" and suggests we write to him "c/o the publishers of this book" - his name is Dennis Jackson.

On Amazon there is a book called The Exam Secret which seems to be the same book with a different name. It's very old fashioned, talks about exams that don't exist any more like the School Certificate, is mostly about essay writing exams and is pretty arrogant in it's approach, but as I say I found it quite fascinating!

@BevBrook

Mine are really obscure. One is called The Exam Technique, I’m not sure when it was written, maybe the 1950s. I’ve had it since I was really young, think it was my Mum’s

That sounds interesting - do you know who it is by?

'These Happy Golden Years' by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Everyone just thinks of the Little House On the Prairie on covered wagons and log cabins but not the later books in the series about Laura's teen days .
Also a book I have about the history of the Radio Times magazine. A very interesting read about how radio and TV began and evolved.

I also loved Rebecca’s World, and Enders Game - have you read the many many sequels Puddleglum?

Mine are really obscure. One is called The Exam Technique, I’m not sure when it was written, maybe the 1950s. I’ve had it since I was really young, think it was my Mum’s. It is basically a book which says that passing exams is nothing to do with how clever you are but how good you are at passing exams, and gives advice that goes against everything teachers tell you but which I found extremely helpful throughout my exam taking life!

The other is called It’s Fun Finding Out and was published in the 1940s just after the war ended. It is a selection of columns from the Daily Express about facts - who invented lipstick, what did Oliver Cromwell look like etc. I like it even though lots of the “facts” have since been disproved because of the style of writing, and the glimpses you get into the life of the writer, his family, what he did in the war, and also into what was happening in everyday Britain just a few years after the war.

How to Survive Christmas by Gilly Cooper.

I’m not even a a Gilly Cooper fan, but I picked this up in a charity shop a couple of years ago. It’s kind of a combination of handy tips and a comic story about a family Christmas. It was written in the eighties, is hilariously dated and works on the assumption the reader is an upper middle class Cotswolds living housewife with a city banker husband. it’s a real peek into another time and world.

Stuart a life lived backwards..about the chaotic life of stuart short. moving.

The Little White Car, a kind of 'chic lit' romantic novel about the driver of the white fiat uno which was meant to have clipped the car that Princess Diana was travelling in when she died. The protagonist decides to dismantle the car and dispose of it piece by piece to avoid being traced.

Rebecca's World by Terry Nation (creator of the daleks) it was read to me when I was at school and I could never remember the name of it, school friends said I must have dreamt it but I managed to find it years and years later and spent about £20 to buy it from a seller on eBay because it's no longer in print. Brilliant story with a fantastic female heroine.

I was just thinking my user name actually comes from a photograph in that book

Somewhat embarrassing, given my user name - 'Miss Piggy's Guide to Life' by Henry Beard. It has the most amazing photographs of Miss Piggy and her guide to dieting is outstanding . I love it though and can never bear to throw it out.

I also have a secret love for a book called 'Mission' by Patrick Tilly about Jesus returning to earth and how he finds modern life. It sort of fascinates me.

"Moobli" by mike tomkies - tomkies had an incredible, varied life and part if it was what he was best known for; moving to the absolute middle of nowhere to monitor wildlife in scotland, nature writing. But he had a dog, a german shepherd, with him for company and this is the story of that dog - i defy any doglover not to cry come the end! Never met anyone who's read it.

Into the Darklands.....obscure fantasy book by Michelle Sagara

oops, "Wraeththu" even!

I love the "Wraethu" books - the original series is by Storm Constantine, and over the years she has encouraged and engaged with fan fic so there are several "canon" nooks by other authors too.
I have hardly ever "met" anyone else who has read them though.
I also love "A Companion to Wolves" which is one of those "If I had to explain, you wouldn't underdstand" type things which defies description but is just mind numbingly brilliant!

Don’t Knock the Corners Off by Caroline Glyn. Long out of print.

I quite often buy random books from the Oxfam bookshop because the first page or so looks interesting. The one I just finished was great. It's called The Defeat of John Hawkins, about an Elizabethan slaving expedition that went wrong.