I read some free kindle books back in the day, that probably only a few thousand other people have read, so very plausibly no one on Lemmy has ready.
So, what books have you enjoyed that you feel confident no one else on Lemmy has read?
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Any translation of “The Divine Comedy” should be atleast interesting! Possibly the best feat of poetry of our time.
Back when I was an edgy teen, the saga of Darren Shan and the adjacent content of the Demonata were good as far as I can remember. I don’t know if it will hold up for a more mature audience despite that being the demographic.
Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing. It’s a very easy read all about how weird currency is. My only gripe is that Jacob Goldstein often leaves out too much detail of historical accounts in favor of keeping the book light and accessible.
Looks rather popular with how many reviews it has, and there are like lots of news stories on it.
But it looks really fun so I may grab it anyway!
Project Itoh Genocidal Organ. Modern Sci-fi book of post 9/11 world where a bunch of genocides take place in third world countries at an unprecedented pace. Also has something called alpha consumers who are people who research where every part of their food or product comes from (not part of the plot but thought it was cool). After playing Metal Gear Rising it has very similar themes
It looks like it got a movie adaptation, so looks like it’s pretty popular. But sounds cool regardless!
I have never met anyone who has read Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series. It’s one of my favourite sci-fi’s and I can’t even get someone I know to read it, everyone thinks it’s boring :)
I’ve read Revelation Space and Chasm City.
I’m sorry, but they are a massive struggle.Great series, love all his works. He also wrote the Zuma blue episode for Netflix’s love death and robots
A friend gave me that and name of the wind for my birthday 10+ years ago. Loved name of the wind but never picked up the Alastair Reynolds book.
Got an elevator pitch for us?
Post and trans humanism, far future, long time scales, democratic experiments, aliens, old aliens, new aliens, robots, organic tech, living tech, harmless aliens. It kinda has everything. Space opera with some urban fantasy elements, but rather dark and not light-hearted. No FTL travel (at first, can’t remember if there was some at the end), which makes for interesting timescales.
Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature by C C Bombaugh, one of my favourite reads, feels like it might be an obscure book.
The Art Of Learning - Josh Waitzkin
If you saw the movie Searching For Bobby Fischer, you might remember the main character Josh Waitzkin. Based on a true story and book written by his father, the movie tells the story of Josh who becomes a world renowned chess champion at a young age.
IRL, Josh also goes on to compete internationally and excel in Tai Chi Push Hands. In his book, he talks about how he isn’t inherently talented at either of these disciplines but that he’s learned how to learn and that it can be applied to any interest.
I love that book! I try to read it once a year to keep the ideas lodged in my brain.
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.
Quoting from wikipedia:
The book is set “roughly two thousand years after a nuclear war has devastated civilization … [and] … is written in a stylistic, imaginary dialect based on and inspired by the dialect of Kent”
“The struggle with Riddley’s language is what makes reading the book so absorbing, so completely possessing."
It takes a while for your brain to adjust, but once it does, you don’t even notice.
Beyond the sky and the earth by Jamie Zeppa. The only people I know who have read it have done it at my recommendation.
House of Leaves
Yeah, that was an unique trip to say the least.
One of my favorites of all time.
“Red Harvest” by Dashiell Hammett.
Almost 100 years old, and it is still one of the best things you’ll ever read.
If the plot sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been stolen over and over and over.
A private detective is hired to investigate corruption in a small city. When the man who hire him is gunned down, the unnamed hero decides to set all the town’s gangs at each others’ throats to see what shakes out.
“Passagem para Ravena” has a great mix of romance and fantasy, got me immersed like no other.
After Man by Dougal Dixion.
It’s a book about speculative biology. It hypothesizes that humanity will lead to the extinction of most of the animals we know. After that new animals will evolve to take their place. The book speculates that rabbits will take the place of deer, and that rats will evolve into dog like animals .
The best part about the book is that there are great illustrations.
To my knowledge it’s not a very well known book, just because speculative biology is a very niche subject.
Have you ever checked out Alltomorrows by Nemo Ramjet? It’s got some of the best illustrations and stories in the speculative evolution genre.
I am talking out of my butt here, but I read a related book, “Man After Man”, by the same author, when I was a kid, and it stuck with me, so many years later when Amazon became a thing, I tried to find it and his other books. I wound up in a rabbit hole of Google that suggested that he does some of the art and was discredited for it? At least. I think I remember something like that. Man After Man was trippy though.
Edit: Googled a bit, can’t find reference to this now. Maybe I’m wrong? It could happen, in theory.
Social Life in the Insect World by Jean-Henri Fabre
