What's your favourite random book?

[BrendasUmbrella]

Like an obscure fiction book you love but have never heard anyone mention and maybe it's because it has a really off-putting cover? Or a non fiction book that's to do with a hobby you have zero interest in but the book captures your imagination anyway?

I think my favourite is Jane Asher's Fancy Dress. Jane Asher (ex girlfriend of Paul McCartney, not sure what else she is known for) makes fancy dress costumes for her celeb friends and family to model. My favourite is the jellyfish costumer that is literally an umbrella covered in bubble wrap and trimmed with metallic streamers. Or maybe Terry Jones as a topless girl with papier mache boobs jumping out of a cake... I found it in a charity shop and it has survived several bookcase culls, because I can't part with it!

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.

'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.

@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?

@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!

The story of life by Chris (simpsons artist)

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.

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.

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.

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'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 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.

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

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