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      CommentAuthorSoupnazi
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    To be honest, guys, I much prefer the little thrill of discovering that other people have read a book you really love and have never been able to talk about to just sitting around being hipsters and going “oh, let’s find a book no one’s ever heard of”. That’s no fun.

    Agreed; though it could also be said that the original point of this thread could be taken as obscure book recommendations, I quite like how it’s turned out.

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      CommentAuthorFell_Blade
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    Its kinda hard to know if you really are the only one who has read a particular book unless you mention it. That’s what I figured this thread was for anyway.

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      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    Mnemone, not to be a jerk, but you’ve been posting poetry snippets in threads where they don’t belong for a while now. I enjoy coming across them, so I don’t mind, but saying that certain authors are irrelevant to this thread isn’t quite fair. I’ve never met anyone who’s read Howard Pyle. True, I’m homeschooled, but I doubt I’d find anyone my age who’s read him anyway.

    I don’t see how poetry has anything to do with this thread, Inkblot. I agree with Mnemone to a certain extent. Most people here have read books by “classic” authors such as Tolkien or Lewis, but I don’t see any problem with mentioning some of their less popular works of fiction.

    • CommentAuthorMnemone
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     
    The "Step follows step..." thing is actually a mantra from *The Two Princesses of Bamarre*, a book mentioned in this thread. I'm not sure it really counts as a poem, but I wondered if anyone else who had read the book would remember it.

    Have any of you read poems by Charles Causley? He's really great, a formal verse poet from Cornwall. His books include *Johnny Alleluia, Union Street, Survivor's Leave* and *Farewell, Aggie Weston*. I first found him in a stodgy dead-white-man poetry anthology.
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      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    I agree with her, because Messrs. Scott, Lewis, and Pyle are authors that numerous people have read, and are core parts of English-language culture. They are probably irrelevant to this thread.

    While I admit that they are considered staples (although I acknowledge I’ve never read Pyle), fewer and fewer people are reading these books (see my comment about having not read Pyle). Sure, many people have read Narnia and a lot have read the Space Trilogy, but a diminishing number of people have actually read The Screwtape Letters. And while Ivanhoe was once considered a mandatory read for the well-read individual, I have encountered very few people today who have actually read it. If I want to have a discussion about The Screwtape Letters, other than my Pops, I’ve nobody to discuss it with.

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      CommentAuthorThea
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    I have to say, it is hard to find books that no one has read, it’s really why I don’t post in here, because a lot of what I’ve been reading recently isn’t new, but isn’t all that old and often published by the big publishing houses. So they’ve had a reasonably wide scope of release and while it’s possible that someone’s read them, no one in my social circle has read them. I’d love to talk about them, but it gets very one-sided.

    @WulfRitter:

    Has anyone read the Rogue Agent series by K.E. Mills? It’s by an Australian author, IIRC, and fantasy.

    And Patricia C. Wrede, who wrote the Enchanted Forest Chronicals, which are pretty popular, but also Mairelon the Magician, which is also really clever. John Bellairs, too, wrote fantasy set in, I think, the fifties (kid’s books) but don’t seem to be nearly as popular as they were. Not to mention the Circle of Magic series, which I don’t think ever got very popular but should have been (also a kid’s series, what is with me today?).

    But again, I don’t know if anyone here has read these.

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      CommentAuthorBlueMask
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    That’s why I think this thread is great- it’s full of recommendations, and reminders that there are still good books out there that I haven’t read. Sometimes I get so depressed thinking about the thousands of great books out there that are being forgotten.

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      CommentAuthorFalling
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     
    <quote> To be honest, guys, I much prefer the little thrill of discovering that other people have read a book you really love and have never been able to talk
    </quote>

    I think that's where we got off topic. I'm we kinda got off topic. You see a book someone else has read and it's hard to contain the urge to comment and throw in a couple more that you have read that aren't the most widely read. I am quite aware that CS Lewis is quite famous, but knowing someone that has actually read The Great Divorce... well I now know one. Screwtape Letters, I know a couple but except in certain circles not many seem to read this books.

    But point taken, although I still find it hard to judge what counts as obscure. For instance Timothy Zahn is a blockbuster seller with Star Wars novels, but how many have read his original sci fi series: Conqueror's Trilogy or Frank Compton/ Quadrail? Maybe he's too mainstream, but I also don't know all that many people who read him.
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      CommentAuthorSoupnazi
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2011
     

    Well, the title is books nobody else has read, not authors, and with famous authors their lesser known works are often just as obscure as obscure novels by obscure authors.

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      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeDec 16th 2011 edited
     

    WulfRitter:

    I liked The Well at the World’s End by William Morris. OK, I liked the first volume. My library system only has volume 1. Which is great, unless I want to, I don’t know, find out how the book ends! I guess that means I will have to buy volume 2 (which means I will have to also buy volume 1 because having only half a book is nonsensical). That said, it is considered by some literary scholars to be the first true high fantasy novel, and it was an inspiration to both Tolkien and Lewis.

    Wulf, you can download the entire William Morris collection from Project Gutenberg for free. I have his three most well-known works (get it? Well known?) in .txt format. Because it’s well out of copyright, it’s considered public domain.

    That said, I agree completely. Wood Beyond the World, House of the Wulfings and Well at World’s End are all extremely beautiful books, that really have that sense of magic and mystery and the Sublime Unknown that a lot of modern fantasy might lack. There’s a real sense of awe and wonder when faced with the implications of magic in Morris’s work. And the language is gorgeous as well.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeDec 16th 2011
     

    Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie, by George MacDonald.
    He’s most famous as the author of Phantastes, which is best known as the book that started C.S. Lewis on his journey to Christianity. It’s kind of a weird book, and feels almost dreamlike in some places. The Princess and the Goblin is a children’s story, with a main character who’s somewhat reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ Lucy. The sequel isn’t quite as good, but it’s still worth reading.

    • CommentAuthorMnemone
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2011
     
    I read both *The Princess and the Goblin* and *The Princess and Curdie*, which I recall with vague fondness, for many years have passed since then. Thumbs up. I remember the songs the goblins sing reminding me of Gollum.
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      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2011
     

    Wulf, you can download the entire William Morris collection from Project Gutenberg for free.

    Very cool. I hadn’t thought to check Project Gutenberg (I often forget that it exists blushes). Since I prefer to read a physical book (easier on my eyes, and all), I’m hoping that I get some money for Christmas and then I can buy a copy. But if I don’t, I think I’ll check out Project Gutenberg. Thanks for the tip!

    that really have that sense of magic and mystery and the Sublime Unknown that a lot of modern fantasy might lack.

    That pretty much sums up what I wanted to say. What I’ve been able to read has just been amazing – Morris really transports the reader into a full and beautiful world.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2011
     

    I’ll have to try him, then. I remember reading something about him in a C.S. Lewis essay—Lewis was apparently a fan of his work as well.