Underappreciated books

[Quaxar]

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.

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Nihilm]

"The Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind

 

[Arsen]

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]

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.

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]

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)

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.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Pretty much anything by GP Taylor.

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

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]

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]

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.

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.

 

[penguindude42]

Um...Lord of the Flies?

"Sucks to your ass-mar!"

~tom

 

[Paragon Fury]

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]

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

 

[PatSilverFox]

The Alienist, by Caleb Carr

 

[Captain Bork]

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. =)

 

[Mr Somewhere]

I was speaking with others in regards to our reading habits, and was astonished that while all of them claimed to enjoy the horror genre (to which I am at best an occasional fan), none of them had ever heard of The Monk, which is essentially the original horror novel.

What books do you think deserve more attention than they receive, fiction, or non?

The Monk is a few decades late of being the original horror novel...
Anyways, on topic...
Man Plus, is classic science fiction novel that I've heard few people actually mention. It's a great modern classic in the fine tradition of mid-twentieth century science fiction. Plus it has a neat Frankenstein touch, and I love Frankenstein... so there.
Plus it's a wonderful study of alienation and humanity in the light of an increasingly thecnologically based society. And it's got cyborgs, I swear the book was written for me.

 

[Verlander]

The Man in the High Castle