Seth Godin asks: "What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?"

Over at the newly launched TED Conversations, Seth Godin asks "What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?" The responses to his request so far look fantastic. (Now I'm going to have to get myself a copy The Universal Traveler.)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Flying_Monkey

Although it does seem that at least half the people posting there have completely missed the point, which is that he wanted books that have been ‘overlooked’ – i.e. are not popular or critically acclaimed. A lot of people just seem to be posting their favourite book(s) regardless… so there’s a lot of exactly the opposite of what he asked for.
Anonymous

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. A page-turner, first installment of a quasi-fantasy series that’s being made into an HBO series this coming spring. None of the standard sword-and-spell cliches that usually go with fantasy books, but full of medieval back-stabbing drama. Really authentic characters and a pretty good stack of plots.
BK

Thanks for posting this Mark. Lots of good ideas here.
Anonymous

“A Night in the Lonesome October” by Roger Zelazny and Gahan Wilson.

“Way Up High” by Roger Zelazny and Vaughn Bode.

(Do not purchase any versions that do not include all the Wilson/Bode illustrations.)

Unexpurgated “Travels in West Africa” by Mary Kingsley – recent versions have been bowlderized to remove the last chapters, which bluntly expose the scientific racism that preceded and inspired Nazism.

Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstedter.