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Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#101

Post by vram22 »

gjkood wrote: post #36

Some great comics/graphic novels that are relatively unknown in the US Asterix comics [1] Tintin comics [2] Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics. I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3... [2] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no…

The drawings / illustrations in Asterix and Tintin comics are just great. I like them almost more than the stories or characters, especially for the Asterix ones. The drawings of scenery are very evocative, and expressions on the faces of the people in the comics seem very realistic, despite being drawn with just a few lines, relatively speaking.

Another great point about Asterix comics (so I read), is that they were initially written in French, and later translated into English (I've only read them in English) - and still there are many puns and word plays in the English versions. I don't know how they managed to do it, or whether they created different puns for the English versions. Likely the latter, because I guess the puns would not translate well across languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#102

Post by vram22 »

Noos wrote: post #79
gjkood wrote: post #36

Some great comics/graphic novels that are relatively unknown in the US Asterix comics [1] Tintin comics [2] Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics. I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3... [2] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no…

Most of Moebius's work is relatively unknown as well, although his designs are very recognizable in film.

>Moebius

You mean the Moebius of the Moebius strip?

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#103

Post by howenterprisey »

asimpletune wrote: post #24

Foreign: * Life: a users manual by George s Perec. * Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal * Auto-da-fe by Elias Canetti Domestic: These are harder because I feel like they’re all pretty well known, but maybe they’re not actually read. Like, known bc people have heard the name, but are not read as much anymore. * Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson * Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon * Blood Meridian by Cormac McC…

Mason & Dixon by Pynchon is also very, very good.

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#104

Post by vram22 »

How about Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse novels (fiction)? Asking, not saying (whether they are relatively unknown in the US). They are very popular in India, and of course must be so in the UK, since both authors were from there.

A lot of subtle humor (British-style, mainly about the aristocracy's ways, but fun to read) in the Wodehouse books. And Christie has many good novels in the detective genre. I actually don't find many detective novels good in the literal sense of being good stories about detection of crime, I like them more for the descriptions, conversation and atmosphere.

These stats for Christie from Wikipedia are impressive:

[ Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books,[5] behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages.[6] And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time. ]

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#105

Post by allegedganon »

riffraff wrote: post #98
ddebernardy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just those two. Most French/Belgian comics [1] are unknown in the US. There have been tons of talented newcomers since the 1990s, and some cursory Googling suggests me that most are not translated to English yet. (Some are available in German.) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Belgian_comics

I would say European and south American comics are mostly unknown in the US. L'incal, Corto Maltese, Mafalda, El Eternauta... There is a whole world which is distinctly different from the mainstream American style and manga/manwa, and very interesting.

The recently released film Valerian is based on a 70's french comics Valerian & Laureline that is/was totally unknown in the US.

Even more interesting is how much inspiration a certain George Lucas seem to have drawn from them:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/30/are-the-valrian-and-l...

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#106

Post by jkbyc »

modernerd wrote: post #49

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889, London). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm The first half of the opening chapter is the best intro to any work of comic fiction I've read. At face value it's a simple road trip story (by boat), but the episodes of hypochondria and camaraderie still feel contemporary and fun — it is written and to be read for the pure joy of it, and you need look for no d…

My mom used to read these to me and my brothers when we were little, we all really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

If you like Jerome K. Jerome, you should also check out Saturnin: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1724928.Saturnin It has a great poetic and funny style of classical Czech works. There's a movie too. Just in case someone is interested, a movie with a similar funny and poetic style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_It_Short (Postřižiny) and I'd also recommend checking out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonder... - a surrealistic horror film...I love the soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyPEraG74c ...and to make it relevant to the original request, there's a book of the same name by Vitezslav Nezval (I haven't read it though)

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#107

Post by vram22 »

LandR wrote: post #50

Not sure how well these are known in the US.. Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl. Anything by Dostoyevsky. José Saramago's the double. They made a film based on this with jake gyllenhall but not sure how well known the book and saramego is in the US, both book and film are excellent. A girl is a half formed thing by Elmer mcbride is the best thing I've read in years with a really unique writing style. It's an i…

I didn't like the one book by Dostoyevsky that we had in English literature class in high school. I think it was the one about Raskolnikov. Found it heavy / morbid / not much interesting. But I've read some novels by other Russian authors (a while ago), and IIRC found some by Chekhov good. Some novels I read about life on farms during the Soviet times were interesting too, cannot remember the authors or book titles right now.

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#108

Post by JonathanMerklin »

vram22 wrote: post #104

How about Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse novels (fiction)? Asking, not saying (whether they are relatively unknown in the US). They are very popular in India, and of course must be so in the UK, since both authors were from there. A lot of subtle humor (British-style, mainly about the aristocracy's ways, but fun to read) in the Wodehouse books. And Christie has many good novels in the detective genre. I actually…

Anecdotal, but Agatha Christie popped up in the required reading more than a few times for me from grades 6 through 10 (ages 12 though 16). I went to an average public school in the Midwestern U.S.

Wodehouse is new to me; I appreciate the recommendation.

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#109

Post by Thersites »

avmich wrote: post #59

Russian schools of science fiction, "established" by Ivan Efremov and Strugatskie brothers, produced many great pieces of literature. One of my favorites is "A billion years before the end of the world" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel) .

Agreed. Monday Begins on Saturday is amazing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Begins_on_Saturday

Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?

#110

Post by vram22 »

Some books by George Mikes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mikes

[ George Mikes ['mikeʃ] (15 February 1912 – 30 August 1987) was a Hungarian-born British journalist, humourist and writer, best known for his humorous commentaries on various countries. ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien - his most famous one.

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