I have discovered something not very nice about myself since I began this forgotten books thing. I am not a very adventurous reader. Apparently lots of readers wander through bookstores, choosing books willy nilly--not just on the basis of reviews they have read or familiar names.
I know now that some people take a chance on a book that captures their imagination without any previous knowledge of the author. Maybe the title or cover alone draws them in. Maybe they are even attracted to its very oddness.
And in this way, they discover something rare and wonderful. I am determined to do this soon. To put the NYTBR aside, to forget names I already know, and find a book so rare and so forgotten that no one else will ever once have read it. Have you ever come across such a book or do you get led by the nose like me?
16 comments:
I've been very lucky this way...I've picked up books whose packaging, topic, and "browsable feel" (and a quick read of a passage or two) have suggested that they might well be worth a tumble. That's how I started reading Gregory McDonald, THE WALTER SYNDROME by Richard Neely, and LIGHT YEARS by Maggie Gee, to name three.
Also, my lifelong love of short fiction has led me to anthologies and fiction magazines...which in their turn will put you onto people much more reliatbly than then the gang at the TIMES BOOK REVIEW (c'mon, all the Kool Qids prefer the WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD).
Or even reliably. Though now I wonder what reliatbly might be.
I have picked up a few in the library sale that I think would qualify. I plan to talk about one of those, a short story collection on Friday.
I quite enjoy discovering authors no-one else is reading.Living in the UK a lot of what I read isn't over here so I have to get them sent from the US in the main.
So whilst a lot of what I read is known to the "crime community" I dont think many people around me are reading the likes of Gischler, Doolittle, Neil Smith, Stella, Norman Green,Troy Cook, Marc Lecard,Swierczynski, Leonard Chang and more.
I'm probably some sort of elitist or book snob, but I don't want to be reading what everyone else is.
Obviously there are exceptions to the rule and I'll be digging into the next Michael Connelly and Robert Crais etc along with the masses
Both. I've followed reviews and just picked up something that looked like I might like.
Richard Price's Blood Brothers was like that for me, never heard of him when Ipicked it up - I think because it reminded me of The Pope of Greenwich Village.
Also Bobbi Ann Mason's In Country. I think I'd read a short story by her but I have no idea what I thought I might like about In Country - turns out it was everything. Haven't seen the movie, though.
Again, too conservative to pick up a book I hadn't heard of. Even at library sales, I'm cautious. Maybe because I have over 300 books on my TBR pile. We get the Post online.
Love In Country. The movie was so-so. Probaby Bruce at his best.
Colman-My daugher, Megan's first book debuts in England in August. She's pretty tough. Maybe you'll like it. Travis-love those library sales but our library dumps them after. Landfill!
DOH! I've just realised that I've answered a question that you haven't even asked!
Sadly, there are many books that I can put my hand on my heart and say either a)the author's unknown to me or b) I haven't seen the book mentioned anywhere else or blogged up on the net.
Maybe 3 books in total this year, I've bought on spec.
TOBY LITT - DEADKIDSONGS (UNREAD)
GREG HURWITZ - I SEE YOU (UNREAD)
JOEL ROSE - KILL KILL FASTER FASTER (SURPRISINGLY ALSO UNREAD)
Thanks for the tip on Megan, I've got her on the TO BE TRIED pile also with John McF.
Can't believe Richard Price had slipped under his radar...never seen the film THE WANDERERS?
I loved it, but it's probably a bit dated now.
DOUBLE DOH! I really should check my post before hitting the button....I meant there AREN'T many things I try blind!
Several things have robbed me of one of life's greatest joys: browsing bookstores and stumbling across an unexpected treasure.
My little town has no bookstores anymore(the Waldenbooks closed several years ago) and the price of gas has gotten so outrageous that driving to the nearest bookstore(about fifty miles) isn't as cost effective as it used to be.
I could still do it but for the third cause. My health is not what it used to be. A number of surgeries in the last few years has reduced me to buying from the internet. That's fine when you know what you're looking for.
Your Forgotten Books Friday has been a boon to me. I can still find those treasures now. Thanks.
Randy-My library, as I said, gives books away (well for $.50). I wish I knew what you were looking for. Maybe, I'll pick up a few at the next one and mail them to you. If this sounds like a good idea, send me your address at aa2579@wayne.edu. I'd be delighted to see some avoid landfill.And I'm talking about books only six months old. I have some here I will never get to.
Colman, all of those are new titles to me. Why can't books come out in all English-speaking countries at the same time. They hardly advertise anymore so it can't be that.
Patti, thanks for the offer. But my wants are just to large to list. I keep a notebook with handwritten pages of favorite authors' books, As I find them, I mark them off. I'm still missing a couple of Ellery Queens, a dozen or so 87th Precincts, seventeen Perry Masons. You see the problem. I could go on and on about what I'm looking for.
I appreciate the offer though.
Growing up on the backside of nowhere, if a book showed up, you read it. It didn't matter who wrote it or what it was about. By the time I was twelve, I'd read Animal Farm, Gone with the Wind, and Lust for Life. My crime fiction reading consisted of the Jr. G-Men, the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Beldon. Even now, my reading's all over the place. Probably why my writing never quite fits anywhere.
You just made me realize what the biggest impact of buying on line is for me. My one-click addiction is fed entirely by recommendations and reviews, but when I browsed bookstores more often, I always found something I'd never heard of that sounded good. I do that less now because I shop on line most of the time.
Good point, Lisa. That does make you focus in more.
Sandra-Even in Philly, our local libarary was in a bookmobile until I was seven or so. It was so tiny, that librarian basically decided what you should read and handed books to you out the window. I only got to read the girliest books.
I agree with Todd, that packaging is important, along with the blurb on the back or the inside flap. Any well known author endorsements are not enough for me. They may have different tastes in reading material than I do.
Sometimes I have walked in the aisles of the regular stacking sheves where I have gone to reach for a particular title that has caught my eye, and another, either next to it, or on a separate shelf falls to the floor at my feet. I look at the book that has fallen, purchased it and gone home to find a gem. Three such books were: Lillian Stewart Carl's LUCIFER'S CROWN, C.J. Sansom's DARK FIRE and Michele Hauf's SERAPHIM.
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