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...

The family at one end street. Absolutely loved my mums copies of these books

As a child of the 70s and early 80s, YA fiction didn't really exist.
The nearest I got were books written by Ruth M Arthur that I borrowed from the local library.
I've never known anyone else who read them, and I don't think they're in print anymore.

LOVED Eve Garnett! Tried to get my DD to read it but she wasn’t interested, sadly! Did you know she didn’t die until the 1990s? I had no idea when I was reading my mum’s childhood copy of Family at One End Street that she was still alive!

I read The Eyes of Karen Connor - I think it was young adult novel from the eighties/nineties

Loved this book.. I do remember all the ways they budgeted and cooking with the hay box.. I loved Mandy written by THE Julie Andrews which was also a book basically about housework.. a young orphan finds a dilapidated cottage and “does it up” like a mini Kristie Allsopp and a bit of a sad theme for me !

I also loved The Land of Green Ginger as a child.
Nobody has mentioned Thurber's The 13 Clocks. Again loved this as a child. I bought copies of both to read to my children.

Honeymoon in Purdah by Alison Wearing.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Had me in tears on a train with strangers asking if I were ok.
A travelogue of a woman’s travels through Iran in the guise of a couple with a male friend. So sympathetic to the Iranian people and just brilliant. Has anyone read it?

@sandgreen 😃 I got into Icelandic literature after reading Blue Vixen by Sjón/ tr.V Cribb and came across Laxness that way. Haven't looked back since!

I've read Pynchon and wouldn't recommend him to anyone.

The Battle for Dole Acre by Ian Marchant, I love this book but I've never met anyone who's heard of it, let alone read it.

As I said, not all Pynchon. Some of it is dreadfully long winded and obscure, but there are delights to be had.

I’ve not met anyone in real life who’s read any Gene Stratton Porter. A girl of the Limberlost was one of my favourite books as a child and I recently came across ‘Freckles’, a prequel to it.

Two reads from my early teens have stuck in my head: Stag Boy by William Rayner (I can't remember the detail but I do remember how atmospheric it was in a Red Shift kind of way) and A Sound of Chariots by Mollie Hunter which moved me to tears on multiple readings.

I've read that! In fact I remember coming on to MN years ago asking what this book was called as I remembered it but not the name! Promptly ordered a copy. Wonder if it was you that helped me?!

It's about time my eldest read it!

I read a book called Oxus in Summer as a child. Anyone else?

I really loved the Monica Dickens books. I read them when I was about twelve as I stumbled across them and they made a big impression. I haven’t re-read them as an adult but you’ve inspired me to track them down again and do so.

Harvey Angell. Was in the children’s’ section at the library. Read it to our son at bedtime. Absolutely loved it. Many lessons for adults within.

I really love The Thirteen Days of Christmas. Read it as a child and then read it to my children and it was at least as good as I’d remembered.

Amazing book, loved it as a child.

Mobydick by Herman Melville.

There's one good chapter at the start, which lulls you into a false sense of security that it's going to be a great read.

It isn't.

Second from last in the sack race - David nobbs.

This bloke wrote the Reggie Perrin books/ tv series. I wasn't that keen but I was a teenager when I read Second from last - and it made me laugh a lot!

I have never met anyone who has read Russell H Greenan and he is just so good. It Happened in Boston? Just blew me away

lots of interesting books to look up here!!

Loved this, had my mum's copy too!

The Stone Cage by Nicholas Stuart Grey - a retelling of Rapunzel. Such a sad ending.

I have a copy of that - it's one of those books where I want to yell at the heroine for being so utterly deluded. I was disappointed that her husband took her back at the end. Also couldn't remotely see the attraction of the 'other man' who was supposed to be sex on legs - however godlike his physique, no intelligent woman could get past him being a total pillock.