Post: #1

When I was in college, one of my favorite pastimes was to wander the stacks at the main university library between classes, just walking around randomly looking at titles. When something caught my eye I would pull it down, skim it, and if it seemed promising, check it out. I found many good books that way that I otherwise would never have read.

Let's make a list of books members think are superb or important but are not widely known. Maybe they never got much attention or maybe they did at the time, but with the passage of decades or centuries are largely forgotten now. Any subject, fiction or nonfiction.

I'll start:

The Great Chain of Being-the study of the history of an idea-Arthur Lovejoy

This book blew my mind when I read it at age 14. It traces the history of the concept of the "great chain of being" from ancient Greek philosophy to the ultimate death of the idea in the 19th century and shows how it undergirded so much of Western thought It was a famous book at the time but little known today. What it made me understand was that ideas have a life cycle and a history that can be examined to understand why they exist, what effect they have had, and whose purposes they serve.

Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary France-Robert Darnton

In the decades leading up to the revolution, France had a huge literary underground that was scandalous, sometimes sexual, and filled with political, social, and religious dissent. Much of this literature was illegal and yet widely sold and read. In rereading this a while back I couldn't help but draw parallels between the political climate then and now.

A History of Reading-Alberto Manguel

The author traces the history of reading with endlessly fascinating detail. Sounds dry and boring? It is not.

Gamesmanship by Stephan Potter

One of the books I stumbled on the the college library. If you don't read this book, and its sequels Oneupmanship and Lifemanship, you are making a tragic mistake. They are brilliantly funny. The books are about how to get advantages in social situations through various clever techniques, all delivered by Potter in a dry British style. Anyone imbued with the player mindset will appreciate Potter. I dare you to read these books and try not to nod your head and laugh.

Sample reviews:

Quote:These are the four funniest books I have ever read. And yet, the basic concepts and strategies set forth are exactly what's needed to reign supreme in all situations social and competitive. Many times over the years I have employed some variaton of a Potter "opening" or gambit, often with better results than I had even hoped. Just as many times, I've realized (too late), that I have missed a golden opportunity, or worse, have been "one-upped" myself.

Quote:British humor, very, very British. If you *don't* like losing, develop the skills needed so that you always win. In any social situation a definite hierarchy develops. Potter's work can be considered a manual for anyone seeking to become the top dog. This volume contains four books previously published separately: Gamesmanship, Lifemanship, One-upmanship, and Supermanship. Potter's own work in the field of becoming one-up on one's fellow man is supplemented by the researches of others in various fields: the carmanship of Godfrey Plaste; the art of not rock-climbing of G. Odoreida; the clubmanship of Hugo Coating; and the many contributions of Gattling-Fenn. Recommended reading for anyone wishing to make Machiavelli gasp in admiration . . .

Quote:Yes, the four greatest humour books ever written. You will come to love/hate Gattling-Fenn, Odoreida, Plaste, Julius Wickens, Sticking, the Lawrenceman, et al, but you won't be able to tear yourself away from them. Take a crash course from Yeovil in the comfort of your own armchair, and then turn yourself loose in any social or competitive setting. Not for the meek, but you'll have the upper hand.

My highest recommendation

The Art of Worldy Wisdom by Balthasar Gracian- a 17th century book of short topical sections on how to succeed in the world of affairs yet remain moral.

Black Water-the book of fantastic literature-ed Alberto Manguel (1984)

A collection of 72 short stories from world literature-this is not a book of fantasy literature i.e. swords and sorcery; rather it is a book fantastic literature-settings of normal life into which something creepy, bizarre, otherworldy or extravagant bursts forth. Ghosts, time travel, fables, strange creatures,paranormal, psychological horror, weird events. One of my favorites is House Taken Over (Casa tomada) by Julio Cortazar in which people are forced from their house by ghosts they never actually encounter. Also includes some classics such as The Monkey's Paw, The Case of M. Valdemar, and In the Penal Colony.

I have more I'll list another day. What would you guys recommend?

Post: #2

The Book of the Damned -- I only made it about 75% through but it made me realize things told to you aren't always true and you should question everything.

The Psychology of Trading, Brett Steenbarger -- Great day trading value here. I see Brett now has a blog as well.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator -- Great book for a story, and also teaches some good trading knowledge.

The Easy Way to Quit Smoking, Allen Carr -- If you still smoke ciggies

Post: #3

STRANGE ANGEL: THE OTHERWORLDLY LIFE OF ROCKET SCIENTIST JOHN PARSONS. A strange little biography about the man who pioneered rocketry before and after WW2. He also founded Jet Propulsion Labs. Along the way he became involved with Aliester Crowley, bohemianism, and special effects for the movie industry. It all ends badly with a lab explosion. Not a bad life for a man self-educated with little college. And he has a crater on the moon named for him.

Post: #4

Anything/everything by Ken Kesey.

Henry Miller.

Obscure? There are a few lesser known books by Kesey, Demon Box is probably the best. Has some good snippets of what I call 'actual philosophy', where thinking and life converge.

Henry Miller is quite well known but often forgotten among American Literature.

Post: #5

Anything by Arthur Koestler. Not really obscure per se but I rarely see anyone mention him outside of niche circles.

Some of his books that I thought were great:

The Sleepwalkers - a history of the world's greatest discoveries and how many of the things that came about were invented by pure accident/sheer luck.

Darkness at Noon - Fiction. Describes the Moscow Show Trials during the 1930s.

The Act of Creation - Non-fiction. Very detailed and entertaining read of the artistic process.

Post: #6

1985 -- Anthony Burgess

Quote:"Ingenious, chilling and darkly comic, 1985 combines a devastating critique of Orwell's 1984 with a terrifying vision of the future. As memorable as A Clockwork Orange, it is as powerful and unsettling as anything Burgess has written. First published in 1978, its thoughts and ideas still hold very true today."

http://www.amazon.com/1985-Anthony-Burge...0316116513

The Far Arena -– Richard Ben Sapir (out of print, I think) EXCELLENT NOVEL.

Quote:The Far Arena tells the story of a champion Roman Gladiator of the greatest "bread and blood" circus days who is exiled, frozen to death, then revived in modern times. Forget the science, although it reads well enough. Just suspend your disbelief, and read on, because this is culture shock on a grand scale.
Eugenie tells his own story of his triumphs in becoming Rome's richest Gladiator, his fall from grace, his "death", and resurrection. The contempt he holds for modern man is palpable. Throughout the book we are forced to question our modern morals and ethics, our religions and beliefs.

http://www.amazon.com/Far-Arena-Richard-...+ben+sapir

Post: #7

(09-15-2014 08:07 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  STRANGE ANGEL: THE OTHERWORLDLY LIFE OF ROCKET SCIENTIST JOHN PARSONS. A strange little biography about the man who pioneered rocketry before and after WW2. He also founded Jet Propulsion Labs. Along the way he became involved with Aliester Crowley, bohemianism, and special effects for the movie industry. It all ends badly with a lab explosion. Not a bad life for a man self-educated with little college. And he has a crater on the moon named for him.

Parsons was also a friend and later bitter enemy of L. Ron Hubbard. They had some kind of love triangle going on and Hubbard was also big into the occult at the time. A lot of Scientology uses standard occult symbology and cult brainwashing techniques Parsons introduced to Hubbard. I believe scientologists tried hard to scrub this connection between the two men in the media and literature but it's pretty widely known these days.

Post: #8

Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer"

This book is short and incredibly insightful. Hoffer focuses on the types of people who seek to join mass movements, be they political, religious or revolutionary. It's also full of keen insights into motivation and mindset, largely unintended.
He had little formal education but was a prolific reader and observer.
Some choice excerpts I underlined include:
"Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one then can point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority."

"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

"The attitude of rising mass movements toward the family is of considerable interest. Almost all our contemporary movements showed in their early stages a hostile attitude towards the family, and did all they could to discredit and disrupt it. They did it by undermining the authority of the parents; by facilitating divorce; by taking over the responsibility for feeding, educating and entertaining the children; and by encouraging illegitimacy."

"When people revolt in a totalitarian society, they rise not against the wickedness of the regime but against its weakness."

It's over 60 years old and all the more relevant for the passage of time.
Not that obscure, but not well enough known either.


And yes, Stephen Potter's books are and were hilarious. The movie based on them is pretty good too:



The books are definitely hard to find although worth looking for. The way he would write about subjects like "winesmanship" "woomanship" "upmanship" remind me of how all the odd game topics mentioned here-bottom feeder game, zebra game, Yelp game, etc

Post: #9

This is the kind of thread Cardguy would've drooled over.

Post: #10

Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey. It's about loggers in Oregon. If you do read it, give it a chance. It takes a few hundred pages to get into. It's a very long book, but very "red pill"/manly.

Post: #11

I first heard about The Exile by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi on this forum.

Released about fourteen years ago, perhaps time hasn't forgotten about it but I never knew of it.

It's great. Two journalists live in Moscow in the 1990s when shit was scary and nothing in Russia was certain. But, they say, it was a paradise for certain foreign men - gaming women and enjoying certain foreign privileges.

I love stories that explore an obscure time and place that teach you something about humanity.

Post: #12

early, out of print/no kindle Orson Scot Card. Treason, The Folk of the Fringe, The Hatrack River series.

Post: #13

Good suggestions-keep them coming!

Class by Paul Fussell

Got attention when it was published in the 80's but not so well known today. Still quite relevant, though. This is the author's analysis of the American class system, done with wit and insight. Time and again over the years I have thought back to some little observation I first read in this book when I have seen it played out in the real world. Clothing ,speech, interior decoration, attitudes, habits of mind, food and other class indicators are covered humorously and with great perceptiveness.

Post: #14

Here is one of my favourites. It might be the best book I have ever read. Paul Collins is an amazing writer - and all of his work is worth checking out. He is like a more intellectual version of Malcolm Gladwell - but with an emphasis on the funny twists, forgotten stories and strange ironies of history.



http://www.amazon.com/Banvards-Folly-Ren...ryds+folly

The book is about famous people from the past - who today are completely forgotten about.

History is a strange thing. Often the people who are most admired in their day are the ones who get tossed aside by history. And the people who were totally unknown in their day - are the ones who become immortal.

The book covers 13 famous people who today are unknown. And every one of their stories is a fascinating insight into the strange way that chance, fate and luck intertwine to leave some people heroes and others losers.

The description below covers some of the stories that are featured:

Quote:John Banvard was an artist whose colossal panoramic canvasses (one behemoth depiction of the entire eastern shore of the Mississippi River was simply known as "The Three Mile Painting") made him the richest and most famous artist of his day. . . before he decided to go head to head with P. T. Barnum.

René Blondot was a distinguished French physicist whose celebrated discovery of a new form of radiation, called the N-Ray, went terribly awry.

At the tender age of seventeen, William Henry Ireland signed "William Shakespeare" to a book and launched a short but meteoric career as a forger of undiscovered works by the Bard -- until he pushed his luck too far.

John Symmes, a hero of the War of 1812, nearly succeeded in convincing Congress to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where he intended to prove his theory that the earth was hollow and ripe for exploitation; his quixotic quest counted Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe among its greatest admirers.

One of my favourite stories was about an English poet who was once the most famous poet in the world - back in the Victorian era. And touted as being the most important poet since Shakespeare.

Today - as with the other people featured in this book - he is completely unknown...

Post: #15

The Men in the Jungle, by Norman Spinrad.

This is science fiction, but it is one of the most gruesome books you will ever read. Has some interesting takes on society, and frankly, it's amazing just how dark a story can get. A guy that starts out seeming like a monster turns out to be the most decent person in the story.

However, after reading the section that mention butcher shops in the city selling human meat, I learned this actually was done by the Aztecs. Apocalypto really soft pedaled the real nature of that civilization.

Post: #16

(01-08-2015 05:30 PM)Plato Wrote:  One of my favourite stories was about an English poet who was once the most famous poet in the world - back in the Victorian era. And touted as being the most important poet since Shakespeare.

Today - as with the other people featured in this book - he is completely unknown...

Curious, who was that poet?

Post: #17

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Farquhar_Tupper

Post: #18

Looking into it - I may have overstated the fame of this poet.

Hard to say - but the comparison to Shakespeare seems to be off.

I probably got mixed up because the story of a Shakespeare forger is also included in the book. And he managed to fool a lot of the experts into thinking his work was actually a bunch of long lost plays by Shakespeare.

Post: #19

The Economist by Xenophon

Read it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1173/1173-h/1173-h.htm