1–10 of 399 posts
What are the best unknown books you read?
¹ https://twitter.com/tommycollison/status/1215008546657423361
² https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-its-systemic-phenomenological...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Grand-Voyage-Ldp-Litterature/...
My contribution:
Richard Dawkins called Julian Jaynes's 1976 book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, “either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius”
A book I am very fond of that I don't think is widely known (though it's not in the same league as your suggestion) is "Resisting the Virtual Life", a 1995 collection of essays on the theme of cyber-wariness published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights imprint - more often associated with poetry.
Also very obscure for a long time, though easily bought now: Mervyn Peake's self-illustrated children's book "Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor". From the author of Gormenghast, but frankly much better. Highly recommended.
Post apocalyptic novel written in a made up language (think Clockwork Orange).
Poetic and deeply moving account of a boy's journey through a world where scientific knowledge has devolved to primitive ritual and incantation; and his dawning realisation that we lost everything.
I've never read anything else like it.
Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century by Scot MacDonald, it's purely academic but also a fantastic read. Also academic is Technoscientific Imaginaries: Conversations, Profiles, and Memoirs by George Marcus, also obscure but at least easier to find.
The 60s-80s books from City Lights are nice when you come across them. Pretty rare though.