The best books you haven't read!

Hubpages has writers from many different walks of life. There are young and old,the artist and the business person and those that are here for other reasons. I have encountered hubbers from as far away as Africa and people who live as close as the next town. But for all of the differences between the people on hubpages there is one common characteristic that I think everyone shares and that is the love of reading and writing. That is why I am surprised I haven’t read many hubs or forum posts about books. Well to change that I have decided to write one to see what kind of reaction it gets. This hub is about the books that most people haven’t read and probably would really enjoy, these are books that may not have been promoted well enough or just never really caught on. My favourite books have always been ones that are unknown and that I didn’t expect to be good. Well here are some books that I have read and unexpectedly loved, please feel free to add your own in the comment box below.

This book is as the title suggests about an Irish guy living in LA and trying to make it in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. When I was first recommended this book by a friend I was confused, most books about LA are just excuses for showing off. I was expecting some shallow writing about “how I made it” with a lot of photos of the author with his arms around various celebrities. However, my friend wasn’t mistaken and I was very pleasantly surprised. Although there are a few passing mentions of celebrities the book is more about someone chasing their dream rather about celebrity worshipping. It gives a good insight into the realities of Lala land and kept me laughing out loud throughout. It is written in a unique style that echoes the voice of the new digital age; it is also very fast paced with each chapter cleverly a story within a bigger story. Love it or loathe it will definitely keep you turning pages long into the night.

This is about Guardian journalist Tobias Jones, who fed up with 21^st century city life decides to pack up with his young family and go and live in various communities or “communes” in Italy and England for a year. He lives in a self managed old folks home in England, a bizarre commune that has its own currency in the Italian alps, a Catholic commune that takes in abandoned children near Rome and ends up in a home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in the south of England. The author explores all of these communities and the people in them. In doing so he learned quite a lot about the true meaning of community and the beauties of an old way of life that we are quickly forgetting. In a time when books like “The God delusion” are convincing people that religion is for the ignorant this book reminds us that religion and church has an important place in  society even if the beliefs it is founded upon are not always sound.  

Since Charles Bukowski passed away a few years back his legend has begun to grow. He was a poet and novelist that people are now mentioning in the same breath as Steinbeck and Kerouac. Surprisingly though not many people have read has autobiography “Ham on rye”. This is an account of his life from as far back as he can remember up until the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Bukowski was in his early 20’s at the time and one of the few people of his age that wasn’t in the army. Bukowski’s books aren’t fun and smiles and Ham and Rye is no different, it can be quite a depressing book at times. It tells us about how he was bullied in school, beaten by his father and destroyed by acne while getting in more than his fair share of fights. Sometimes it’s hard to read as it is graphical and he wasn’t exactly one of the happiest people on the planet but it is very unique and humorous. If you want an insight into one of the most “bizarre” personalities of our time this book is definitely worth reading.