Books you thought no one else has read

[tweetysylvester]

It's so fun to find rare books to read, or just look up or hear about less known books, so thought I'd start a thread about this. Nostalgic novels, YA books, current titles you discovered very randomly...

@Karistyleaftea my entire book club read flowers for algernon. Not as a set book but because a member ordered it as her secret Santa gift for another. But ended up with three copies so we circulated them around.
I actually didn't enjoy Dark Tower. Ploughed through to the end and then gave them away straight away. I admire his craft but don't enjoy his story telling. But my friend adored the series. So guess upside of taking a risk on a book series is redistribution to a wider group if not your cup of tea.

@Fasterthan40 Genuine question, why did you "plough on" with them?
That's an awful lot of wasted reading hours if they aren't something you are in to!
Did your friend recommend them or something?
Also, (no spoilers please) did you appreciate Flowers for Algernon?
Again, it is not for everyone.

@CatChant Mary K Harris ( author of Penny’s Way) definitely should be better known . I have several of her books including Seraphina , Emily and the Headmistress and The Bus Girls. I am particularly fond of Jessica on Her Own, which quite unusually for the time features a girl at a Secondary Modern rather than a boarding or Grammar school. Her family are awful!

@Karistyleaftea I foolishly bought the whole set, convinced I would love iit. cost so much I had to read it

@pollyhemlock and @CatChant — I’m enjoying seeing you “talk” to one another, as a fellow DWJ fan!

I enjoyed flowers for Algernon

i went through a real phase of reading dystopian fiction like that (penguins science fiction collection was very good)

Last mid century writers are some of my favourite

I think I have a copy of Jessica on Her Own but can't remember anything about the story. If it's the right book it was part of a Faber collection including a book by Catherine Storr.

I loved Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright. I’ve never met anyone else who have read them!

Yes - Faber Fanfares. The Catherine Storr was probably Marianne Dreams

I had heard of Flowers for Algernon but only read it last year. I’m not really a fan of sci fi and sci fi but I did quite enjoy it although it was obvious what was going to happen and that it was going to be sad.

Having said that I’m reading the third part of the Vorrh trilogy by B Catling which is sort of sci fi meets real history and very strange

I've read giggling in the shrubbery my dad got it for me when I went to boarding school. I think the boys one is called 'whimpering in the rhodedendrons' or something like that!

Me! I was introduced to the Melendy family series by Enright by my school librarian, and later read the Gone Away Lake books.

I loved the Melendy books, particularly the second one where they move to the countryside. I used to wish I could find a secret hidden room in our house like they did! I fancied Rush quite a bit - a sardonic pianist, what’s not to like?

I remember the title Jessica on her own but not the book.
there were five Swish of the Curtain books?! I’m off to look them up! I read the first and I think the second but I didn’t know there were any more. I loved that book.

I didn't know there was a boys' one! I've ordered it and look forward to reading it. Thanks!

They were republished about 15 years ago by Longwater Books.

Girls Gone By have republished lots of things, too, things like the Chalet School, but I think they've also done some Malcolm Savilles and others.

Yes really interesting - probably the first novel about the UK Chinese community. I remember my mother was fascinated as she had lived in China,

@Barbadossunset - Fattipuffs and Thinnifers is available second hand on Abe books.

@marthasmum - I hadn’t realised that there were five Seish of the Curtain books! Thank you for telling me - I’ve bought the second one on kindle, and it’s lovely to know there are three more to go.

Is that Sour Sweet, or one of the other books upthread? I have a copy of Sour Sweet somewhere, can picture the cover but haven't read it for years.

Another interesting sci fi book is The Four Sided Triangle - anyone?

The Door by Magda Szabo. Translated by Len Rix.

It’s definitely very famous in its native Hungary but I’ve never met anyone here who had read it.

Loved every word.

Boomlakka-wee!!

me! Me! I’ve read them both. My grandmother had them - now her copies are on my bookshelves. What amazing books

I loved Stig of the Dump as a kid. Just found it in a charity shop on audio cd, read by Toby Robinson. Listened to it all the way back from Scotland in the car.