Forgotten books that you rediscovered and loved

[flenna]

To piggyback onto the movie thread I thought I would start one about books since I have always been an avid reader. A few books that I haven't read in over 25 years but recently picked up at a used book store:

William Manchester's Goodbye Darkness. A great historical account of the Pacific war interspersed with first person experience.

Frederick Forsythe's The Dogs of War and The Odessa File. My favorite all time author, I haven't read these books in a long, long time.

These books are just as enjoyable now as they were back then.

[moonshot]

There are so many great books out there, it’s hard not to make this thread merely a list of ones favorites, but there is one book that I must list here. I haven’t “rediscovered” it, as I will frequently pick it up and brouse, but it’s a real sleeper. Almost no one knows of it, even those familiar with the author or who enjoy the genre.

The book in question is And all the stars a stage by James Blish. I wouldn’t call it science fiction (I hate that term). It’s more speculative fiction, and while many who have reviewed it say it was not well written, something about this book has haunted me ever since I first read it, many decades ago.

My favorite book is The Lord of the Rings. I've read TLOTR and its companion books more times than I can remember, and there are many other books that I have read and reread, but as I said, there is something about And all the stars a stage that struck a nerve.

[26 Inf]

I enjoy what I call 'sport reading' which is reading to pass the time as opposed to reading to learn. When I want to reread a book that I no longer have, I go to the library and check it out.

I need to reread Catch-22 and MASH. I enjoyed them.

I don't know if they would interest me enough to reread them, but I'd like to take a look at the old Tom Swift books again. I think I waded through them all before I was in junior high

I still have all the WEB Griffiths Brotherhood of War series. Enjoyed them, haven't really been moved to read them again.

So little time, so many books.

[RetroRevolver77]

A book I read as a teen I liked a lot was "Those about die" by Daniel P. Mannix available in paperback if you can find it. It was about the Roman Colosseum games. Written about actual historical accounts of various events that took place within the arena under various rulers over the empire's centuries. Absolutely chilling when you know that on some occasions they would slaughter thousands of people and animals in a single day just for pure spectacle. They even flooded the arena and had full on naval battles or had had Nile crocodiles and hippos that they would feed people to. Entire classes of citizenry were dedicated just to training animals for the games. The Barbary lion is thought to have gone primarily extinct because the Romans killed so many in their games. Anyway, if you want to know the depths, the real depths of how depraved humans can be- just read the book.

[titsonritz]

Watership Down

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

The Godfather series by Mario Puzo were some of my favorites as a teen, and still are today.

When I was really young, I loved the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. While I'm too old to read them again, I did recently buy the series from a used bookstore for my son.

[SteyrAUG]

Frederick Forsythe's The Dogs of War and The Odessa File. My favorite all time author, I haven't read these books in a long, long time.

These books are just as enjoyable now as they were back then.

Always loved the movie so I thought I would love the book, completely hated it. Half of it was details of bank transactions and I swear I almost didn't finish it.

One of my favorites is "The Ninja" by Eric Van Lustbader. First off it came out in 1980 at a time when I was positive nobody but me knew what a ninja was. Plus you have to love any book that starts with the line "In darkness there is death..."

John Carpenter got the screenplay but never made the movie, sadly.

[Averageman]

My Dad used to make a reading list for me every summer when school let out.
I think Huckleberry Finn was on that list at least three times. Every time I read it I got something out of it.

[26 Inf]

My Dad used to make a reading list for me every summer when school let out.
I think Huckleberry Finn was on that list at least three times. Every time I read it I got something out of it.

On the other hand, my Dad gave me lists of things to do before I could read during the summer. Otherwise it would have been, get up, deliver papers, read or play baseball until pool opens, go to pool, come home when pool closed, eat supper, ride bike until dark, read until bed time. On Mondays the pool was closed, so substitute BB gun wars.

[The_War_Wagon]

Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" novels.

TV show in the '80's got me to reading the books. "A Catskill Eagle" fell off my shelf the other day, so I read it again for the first time in at LEAST ten years - his writing still 'pops,' after all this time. He was also one of the few writers of his time, that actually UNDERSTOOD firearms, and wrote characters accordingly.