Underappreciated books

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stefanbertramlee

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Spade Lead said:
Drunkbot said:
After looking over House of Leaves, that definitely appears to be something I should include in my reading habits at some point. Likely after rereading the Cryptonomicon and my current history book.

On that note, all history books that are not text books need more attention. All fiction pales in comparison to the astonishing tales present in history.
I will see your History and raise you:

<url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove>Alternate History
Turtle Dove is terrible, most of the stuff on the alt history froum is better
 

aba1

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Mar 18, 2010
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somones gotta say it twighlight could use a little more love such good books the movies are even better
 

Quaxar

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Sep 21, 2009
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I see your Lovecraft and raise you Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow, Lovecraft's inspiration and actually kind of good. The first few at least, don't bother with the second half.

And Sergej Lukianenko, mainly his Nightwatch tetralogy. Russian sci-fi author and the books are about Russians too so the habits are sometimes odd, but are well-written and generally great works of literature.

Novijen said:
Bartimaeus Trilogy needs some love. I've yet to see another reader.
Actually, it's four books now so the trilogy part is kinda invalid. Still, I love the books.
 

zeldagirl

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Mar 15, 2011
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One of the best books I've ever read was Jenna Blum's Those Who Save Us. Well-written and compelling. It was apparently a best-seller, though I've never actually met anyone who has actually read it.

Sloane Crosley's I Was Told There'd Be Cake is another great book.

Of course, "underappreciated" is entirely subjective, I suppose, considering there are millions of books I've probably never heard of that are wonderful, but due to the sheer number of books available, something will always slip through the cracks.
 

zeldagirl

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Eric Huntinton said:
somones gotta say it twighlight could use a little more love such good books the movies are even better

This would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Twilight is hardly under-appreciated. If anything, it's the most over-appreciated swill I've ever encountered.

But I'm hoping this was just a joke. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is. :p
SammiYin said:
None of my friends have read Lord of the rings.
Or even SEEN the films for that matter. They suck
But is LoTR, and even Lovecraft to an extent, truly "under-appreciated?" Maybe within friend groups, but those books are all famous and considered classics, so I don't know if they are truly 'under-appreciated' (granted, I said in my previous post it's all subjective, but still).

Don't worry, there are plenty of LoTR fans out there you can meet and discuss the books with (*raises hand*).
 

SuperNova221

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May 29, 2010
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rabidmidget said:
I don't think I have met anyone who has read catch-22, which is a shame considering it's probably the wittiest book I've ever read.
Was reading through the thread and couldn't really think of anything noteworthy.

But this. totally, completely this. Not exactly the least common of books, but I'm surprised at how many people haven't even heard of it.
 

Flailing Escapist

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The Hardy Boys? I don't read too much of anything that isn't by C. Paolini or S. King but the Hardy Boys are one part of my childhood that has yet to be destroyed by mainstream media. (And I'm not talking about the new books, just the ones by the original author.)
 

Gabanuka

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Quaxar said:
Novijen said:
Bartimaeus Trilogy needs some love. I've yet to see another reader.
Actually, it's four books now so the trilogy part is kinda invalid. Still, I love the books.
I dont really count "The ring of Soloman" as a part of the trilogy myself. More of a related prequel.


OT: Yeh I agree with Bartimaeus
 

Arsen

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Nov 26, 2008
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Robert E. Howard. Everyone gives Tolkien credit, but this guy STARTED fantasy literature after mythology faded away.
T.H. White in a modern light.
Brian Froud, for his artistic works.
Clark Ashton Smith. Imagine Lovecraft. Now insert some fantasy warfare in there, a little bit of science fiction as well. Except everything is dark on a complete and utter "Hellish" level.
 

Cogwheel

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Queen Michael said:
Drunkbot said:
All fiction pales in comparison to the astonishing tales present in history.
Except for when said fiction involves dinosaurs fighting Batman.
Like he said. History.

Novijen said:
Bartimaeus Trilogy needs some love. I've yet to see another reader.
Always nice to see another fan of the series.


As for my input? Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. So few people have even heard of the book, but it's amazing, if not without its flaws.
 

Arsen

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Vandenberg1 said:
Read Stephen Kings "IT"... It damn creeped me out (maybe because I thought of Tim Curry?).. its far grotesque but extremely good...(except for ending) One of the best books I ever read period. Insidious actually creeped me out a few times... I love horror sTUFF SINCE I was two
Not to mention that "the clown" isn't IT's...(Dark Tower Book 7 spoiler)
Dandelo's...
... true form. The fact that it was purely a clown the entire time made it somewhat of a bad movie. Tim Curry did an excellent job and all, but it could've been better.

And I have to also agree with King in regards to Kubrick's "The Shining". It was too psychological instead of just "an evil, haunted house that was a semi-demonic presence". I blame the idiot of a director for that one though. :p
 

SckizoBoy

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Jan 6, 2011
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A Hermit's Cave
Pretty much anything by GP Taylor.

Haven't really encountered anyone who's read them, much less like them.

Drunkbot said:
That said, many would rather give up on Lovecraft instead of keeping a reference book handy for the big/archaic words.
o_0' I've never needed that to understand Lovecraft... *shrug*
 

smearyllama

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May 9, 2010
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True Grit. While it is a classic, a lot of people have forgotten about how good a book it was, or they only think about the movies.
The book is absolutely amazing.
 

KingGolem

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Jun 16, 2009
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I'd like to put forth the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy. Written by D. M. Cornish, it follows the adventures of Rossamund Bookchild, an orphan boy with a girl's name, living in a world very similar to Dickensian England but with a countryside overrun by monsters. Monsters are kind of a big deal in this setting, and humanity has developed a broad range of techniques for killing them, from brewing up deadly chemical poisons and repellants to surgically implanting specially grown organs into people to give them super powers. It is also the most richly detailed setting since Tolkien, with its own history, vernacular, culture, and so forth.

For being a great book series, nobody I know has ever heard of it and I've found it in Books-A-Million's discount bin on two separate occasions.

SckizoBoy said:
Drunkbot said:
That said, many would rather give up on Lovecraft instead of keeping a reference book handy for the big/archaic words.
o_0' I've never needed that to understand Lovecraft... *shrug*
Well some people definitely do. My little brother was thinking about getting a tattoo of Cthulhu, despite not knowing anything about him or the works of H. P. Lovecraft in general. He just thought he looked badass. I loaned him a copy of The Call of Cthulhu, but he said it was too hard to read. I believe he was sixteen or seventeen at the time. Such a problem had never occurred to me. I'm smart enough that I can read "squameous," "noisome," "vertiginous," etc. as easy as anything.
 

Paragon Fury

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Jan 23, 2009
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I'm sorry, but I keep reading this threat title as "Undreappreciated boobs", not books. There are quite a few really...but Republic Commando books fall in here.
 

emeraldrafael

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Jul 17, 2010
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I've always found Castaways of the Flying Dutchman to be underappreciated, especially when held against his other works (Redwall)
 

Captain Bork

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Sep 7, 2009
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I also have to say twilight, its a good "How Not to do it" guide.
But in all seriousness I would have to say The Zombie Survival Guide, good deadpan humor that's just serious enough to inspire paranoia. =)