Mine is a 1920 edition of the translation of Ernest Hello's "Strange stories".

All sorts of Latin and Greek texts - I guess they'd perhaps count as "obscure" to most people.

I have some very old tatting books.

I'll have to rummage through the shelves and boxes to answer this one too. :D

I have a copy of:

Oh Angry Sea (a-ab-ba-hu-luh-la): The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament.

Written by Raphael Kutscher, it is a treatise on the purpose and form of the Sumerian lamentation genre.

I have a copy of:

Oh Angry Sea (a-ab-ba-hu-luh-la): The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament.

Written by Raphael Kutscher, it is a treatise on the purpose and form of the Sumerian lamentation genre.

i think we have a winner.

year of publication ?

(and not realy,it'd have to something like an original of a tibetan sacred scroll or something 17th century at least to be a ONE OF WINNER)

year of publication ?

(and not realy,it'd have to something like an original of a tibetan sacred scroll or something 17th century at least to be a ONE OF WINNER)

Oh Angry Sea (a-ab-ba-hu-luh-la): The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament was published in 1975. I am sorry that my submission does not meet your standards of obscure. Perhaps you need to clarify what your definition of obscure is?

Oh Angry Sea (a-ab-ba-hu-luh-la): The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament was published in 1975. I am sorry that my submission does not meet your standards of obscure. Perhaps you need to clarify what your definition of obscure is?

I'm with ZP. You win hands down, MB. I keep rereading the title and I have yet to fathom what it could possibly be about.

MB-I didn't mean to offend you.I meant obscure as in something old and forgoten.

I have a signed copy of High Speed Computing Devices published in 1950. It's a fun read. They discuss some rather famous computers (such as the Mark IV) as "currently under construction."

Two Treatises: In the One of which, The Nature of Bodies; In the other, The Nature of Mans Soule, is looked into: In Way of Discovery of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules. by Sir Kenelm Digby. Written in 1644, the last printed edition came out in 1968, and when I wanted to get it out of the university library to use for my dissertation, they had to go and find it in the cellar. I was only the second person ever to check it out, the previous one being in 1973. I've since found a facsimile copy on the Internet Archive, which is on my iLiad. It's not an light read! :)

When I was a teenager and checked "Gulliver's Travels" out of my local library, they too had to dig it out of the archives for me; I was the first person to borrow it for 40 years.

When I was a teenager and checked "Gulliver's Travels" out of my local library, they too had to dig it out of the archives for me; I was the first person to borrow it for 40 years.
well that's just sad.

carandol-and you have the 68 edition,or as that just borrowed?

I meant obscure as in something old and forgoten.Ah, but the thread is looking at "The Most obscure books you have" (emphasis added), not the most obscure books in existence. That puts something of a limit on just how obscure we're likely to get. :nice:

I bought and downloaded "A Traveller's Greece: Exploring the History and Culture of Greece," published in 2005. It is a weird mix of guidebook and history book, with things like walk 10 paces and stand under the arch. This is where ________ kissed his wife before sailing to Byzantium. (Not a quote, just making it up as an example)

I think its strangeness will make/makes it obscure, because it will only appeal to us weirdos who read travel guides even when we are not planning a trip. OK, in honesty, we plan a couple of weeks in Greece next year for our 20th anniversary, but for now, I'm just enjoying the guidebooks.

I have a hardback book on my shelf with instructions of how to carve birds out of wood. How's that for mainstream obscure?

:beach:

ive seend dozens of manual on "finger works" or "working with wood".The weirdest thing ive seen is this book "the sixth day of creation" which starts in a semi-biblical-post pulp-sci-fi sorta way,and then it turns into a machinery/invention manual of some 350 pages.weird.

Oh good lord, I'm about to lose it. I'm in full rant mode.

<RANT>
Lobolover,

Would you please, for the love of whatever you consider holy, LEARN TO TYPE!? This is a DISCUSSION board. Discussions take place here by the exchange of written words. There are conventions and rules for how to type and write. If you're a reader, which you must be, surely you've seen enough examples of how to punctuate and type correctly to know how to do so. Your failure to do so then is rude and obstinate.

I would love to engage in a thoughtful discussion with you about obscure books, but you're setting the barrier too high by refusing to conform to simple standards of communication.

If the moderators need to chastise me for this attack, so be it, but you really have no excuse for continuing to post such fractured messages. Your space bar and shift key clearly work. USE THEM! You are literally becoming a blight on what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable site.

There. I stand by that and will accept the consequences for getting that off my chest. Enough is enough.
</RANT>


That said, probably the most obscure book I own is "One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese", by Kenneth Rexroth.

If the moderators need to chastise me for this attack, so be it,I'm afraid I really must chastise you for this attack.

Not for the opinion you've expressed, but for the way you've expressed it.

It's possible to suggest all the things you have, and still be respectful.

If you find it too difficult to deal respectfully with posts that are difficult to read (I understand that lobolover may have some language and/or hardware challenges in making his posts) please avail yourself of the "Ignore" feature of the forum.

Now please, folks, let's keep it civil.

Not obscure, but rare, I suppose. I have original print of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I am told it's worth something...

I also have a whole collection from the 1920's of all his collected works.

taylor-I ask you for the last time to let it go.thats the FOURTH time and It was surely enough.

Well, you would think it would be enough, and yet:

taylor-I ask you for the last time to let it go.thats the FOURTH time and It was surely enough.

No apostrophes, random words capitalized, no space after the period. So purely out of curiosity, not as an attack, why do you insist on this?

Listen, I respect stubborn adherence to principles and even eccentricity, but cannot for the life of me understand what you gain by this behavior.

So, yep, I ranted, was reprimanded by the site administration, and so will say no more, other than to mention that now that we've aired this publicly and you realize how counterproductive your "style" is, you should seriously reflect on the merits of making an effort.

carandol-and you have the 68 edition,or as that just borrowed?

Just borrowed! Having finished my dissertation, hopefully I will never have to read it again. I did purchase a copy of a biography of Digby which had one edition in 1952, which I'm hanging onto because it's a good read. You have to admire a character who was alchemist, privateer, duelist, founder member of the Royal Society, discoverer of plant respiration, inventor of the modern wine bottle, Protestant, Catholic, close friend of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, and author of a posthumous cook-book. :)

I don't HAVE an effort to make,other then refusing your provocation,so as not to get banned.I am asking you NICELY (which wasn't a "random" capitalised word,but a word capitalised for EMPHASIS) ,for the VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY LAST TIME to stop this. Your intolerant bickering only insults and makes a person the less willing to "change" anything (but like I said earlier,I have nothing to change).But because this is not an obscure book,I'll stop talking now.I see the "argument" as ended.

I did purchase a copy of a biography of Digby which had one edition in 1952, which I'm hanging onto because it's a good read. You have to admire a character who was alchemist, privateer, duelist, founder member of the Royal Society, discoverer of plant respiration, inventor of the modern wine bottle, Protestant, Catholic, close friend of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, and author of a posthumous cook-book. :)

This would be Sir Kenelm Digby ? there's a Monty Python sketch in there somewhere, especially with a name like that, i'm sure of it.

also-im going to go through my cupboard,when it's day-I used to carry away several ,even a dozen books each time from a book antiquairy shop,saving some rare pieces,including a "salad" litle book about Nazi asault's on Jew's.Ill find it tommorow.

I have two volumes of a Sanskrit Dictionary that I purchased when I was a student in India in 1970. For some reason, I keep lugging them around -- they seem sort of otherworldly to me. I only studied Sanskrit for a year anyway, and remember nothing of it. :smack:

I have "The Lyre : Fugitive Poetry of the XIXth Century" which dates to 1830 and would be my most obscure.

But the six volume Sixth Edition of Isaac Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature" from 1834 is my favourite title.

15j
:D

Just found the WERY RARE "Axe from Wandsberg" czech edition,by Arnold Zweig, published in 1949

Seaports in the Moon by Vincent Starrett (1928)
Jog Rummage by Grahame Wright (1974)
They're both in SF&F magazine's Curiosities column:

http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/dcuriosities.htm

Well it was suggested already in this thread that someone would come up with a Tibetan text so here goes.

It is the Lam Tso Nam Sum by Je Tsonkapa (1357-1419). It is a summary of a summary and is called the Three Principle Paths. It is only 14 verses but I am referring to the oral commentary on the verses made by Pabongka Rinpoche around 1920 and taken down by Rinpoches students, one of whom was Ken Rinpoche who fled Tibet in 1959 and passed away a few years ago in the U.S.A.

A marvelous little book and a clear and concise overview of Tibetan Buddhism.

'My Past' by Countess Marie Larisch. (London: Eveleigh Nash. 1913.)
She was the go-between in the Mayerling affair, when the Crown Prince of Austria committed suicide after murdering his mistress. It was also a source for T S Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (which was why I bought it in 1976. It cost 75p). My copy has a sticker marked 'Ex libris Eugène, Vicomte di Villa.'

I've also got any number of books on obscure forms of needlework (Dresden embroidery, The ex-queen of Rumania's book of tatting, etc.)

A few years ago I picked up The Visualized World History at my university's annual used book sale. It's a handbook-sized world history textbook published in 1946 with some spectacularly uncouth ethnic illustrations.

I've also got an early edition of Okakura's The Book of Tea (http://www.feedbooks.com/mobile/book/991) what was lent to me by a friend, though to preserve the crumbly binding I read the FeedBooks version (which was another delightful first).

a book by Djuro Viloic called "Three hours" 1939

"Marked" by František Hampl,1940

I've also got an early edition of Okakura's The Book of Tea (http://www.feedbooks.com/mobile/book/991) what was lent to me by a friend, though to preserve the crumbly binding I read the FeedBooks version (which was another delightful first).

We've also got it in our book uploads section; also 'The Ideals of the East' by the same author.

We've also got it in our book uploads section; also 'The Ideals of the East' by the same author.

I've noticed! Thank you, Patricia.

We also have "The Book of Cheese", too, of course!

Sadly it doesn't appear to be available as an e-Book, but I've always felt that "How to Find and Have Fun with Seaweed" by Rose Treat (ISBN 1887734007) deserves to be better known :).

I've been looking everywhere for my copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Bloody Obvious.

Say, since there are only seven copies in existence, would Tales of Beedle the Bard qualify as "obscure?" Not that I have a copy, you understand, I ask only for my own edification. :smile:

Although it is currently considered to be politically incorrect in the US today, I have "The Complete Works of Uncle Remus" and can even read it aloud. However it does take me a while to take my mind and tongue back to youthful memories.

why isn't it completely correct?

natch-it could,if it wouldn't be a "new" set,like Rowling's.

why isn't it completely correct?It carries a lot of politically incorrect baggage: specifically, it portrays slavery in the "American" South in terms that aren't totally condemnatory, that would be enough, but it actually shows slaves as having some decent quality of life.

That isn't a defense of it, just an answer to the question, so please don't sic the PC Police on me. :wreck:

Wiki has a decent write up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Remus

natch-it could,if it wouldn't be a "new" set,like Rowling's.Oh, I didn't realize we were limiting to old stuff, okay then. :nice:

I said "old and forgoten" in another post,I mean it in case of limited editions.You can't realy call Rowling's "money maker" 7 handwriten books fairy tales-series as "obscure", especialy with the price.Women has more money then the queen and sets out to make only a "few" EXTRA milion to give to charity.yay.

and in the second case-Cline's "The dark chamber" would be to,but for the mastery of it's horror fantasy (relating to a black person's "tribe",when a black girl wept in the night,he wrote "wouldn't bother with it otherwise,knowing her kind,I'd smile and go to sleep-and then,when the black people leave the house have them steal the silver (which under the circumstances is belieavable,seeing as their "master" druged her litle girl with cocaine and all))

I said "old and forgoten" in another post,I mean it in case of limited editions.You can't realy call Rowling's "money maker" 7 handwriten books fairy tales-series as "obscure", especialy with the price.Women has more money then the queen and sets out to make only a "few" EXTRA milion to give to charity.yay.

and in the second case-Cline's "The dark chamber" would be to,but for the mastery of it's horror fantasy (relating to a black person's "tribe",when a black girl wept in the night,he wrote "wouldn't bother with it otherwise,knowing her kind,I'd smile and go to sleep-and then,when the black people leave the house have them steal the silver (which under the circumstances is belieavable,seeing as their "master" druged her litle girl with cocaine and all))

I really do not see the point of this thread going on if all your going to to his deride others submissions. Perhaps you should have titled this thread:

The most obscure books you have that meet my definition of obscure and if they don't I will provide snarky comments.

And, in any case, you didn't ask for obscure books, just the most obscure that we own. So it's possible that a person has no books more obscure than Harry Potter. (Not likely, but not impossible)

taylor-I ask you for the last time to let it go.thats the FOURTH time and It was surely enough.
To be 100% honest, it would be easier to read if you use proper capitols and spaces along with proper punctuation.

We also have "The Book of Cheese", too, of course!
How to Dance the Highland Fling is another obscure book in our eBook sections.

Ende: Diary of the Third World War
Two Planets
Elements of Libertarian Leadership
Dirt

And these are the one's I'll admit to.

To be 100% honest, it would be easier to read if you use proper capitols and spaces along with proper punctuation.

A "capitol" is a set of buildings in which a legislature meets. I rather suspect that you mean "capital" :).

Actualy,ive heard the word "capitol" used instead of "capital" in older works or just in an imitation of "old speech" .

The two words are quite commonly mixed up, but it's a mistake to do so. They are similar words with quite different meanings.

I have many of his books and I read them all. A great writer and very obscure too. Not much was known about him.

I have a 50's copy of Fresco: the University of Detroit Quarterly with all the articles dedicated to Lovecraft by authors like Derleth and Leiber. I'd have to dig it out for more info.

Now how's that for sucking up to the thread starter? :D

-MJ

I have a 1912 edition of Great Expectations, from the "Everyman's Library" imprimatur, published by J. M. Dent & Sons of London. (This isn't obscure, but does match the OP's obscure ideas of what he thinks obscure means.)

It carries a lot of politically incorrect baggage: specifically, it portrays slavery in the "American" South in terms that aren't totally condemnatory, that would be enough, but it actually shows slaves as having some decent quality of life.


Actually this is not exactly correct. The story/movie, entitled "The Song of the South" which includes the person of Uncle Remus, does fit that description. However "The Complete Works of Uncle Remus" only contains stories about "critters" (or animals to non-Southerners).

Something known as a 'census atlas' for Trumbull County, Ohio, published around 1869 if my memory is right. They were somewhat common in the midwest to show 'special homes', public buildings and churches (graphic, not photo) and who owned land in the county. Each township in the county had maps with roads and names on the lots of who owned the properties, interspersed in the pages were the graphics homes, etc, of the area shown. In the back was a historical appendix of the properties going back to the mid 1830's. My dad's family owned property in the house where he grew up going back at least to the 1830's. The only rare book dealer I knew that specialized in the 'census atlas' was one in Akron - and I don't think he is still in business any longer.

I think it sits on the bottom shelf to the right love seat (see photo at right)

I just realized that i have something that is at the very least uncommon, if not obscure.

I have a first edition World Map Book. it was published in 1981 by the Defense Mapping Agency for NASA, to be used by the space Shuttle crew. My grandfather worked at the DMA, and this was one of his last projects before he retired.

It only has 45 pages, and it only shows airstrips (besides political and geographic features). I believe it was intended to show the orientation and location of places where the shuttle might land in an emergency.

Nate, I'd love to have that. I'm a mapaholic.

reminds me of the book I saw a while back-a militairy atlas of batles in history.I swear it had a formating of A0 AT LEAST and it was the bigest book ive seen in my life-AND the heaviest.

Taylor-"the OP's"?

Nate, I'd love to have that. I'm a mapaholic.
me too. maybe we could start a new thread just for pictures of maps.

Actually this is not exactly correct. The story/movie, entitled "The Song of the South" which includes the person of Uncle Remus, does fit that description. However "The Complete Works of Uncle Remus" only contains stories about "critters" (or animals to non-Southerners).Ah, I was assuming (bad move, I know) based on the movie -- thanks for educatin' me. :nice:

Everyone has a laughing place,
a laughing place,
to go ho-ho!
Everyone has a laughing place,
and you'll find yours
I know ho-ho!
Ha-ha-ha, he-he-he,
Boy am I in luck!
I think about my laughing place
yuk-yuk-yuk-yuk-yuk!

That little jingle, sung in my basso profundo, has propelled bored and/or grouchy children out of the house more times than I can possibly recall.

I just realized that i have something that is at the very least uncommon, if not obscure.

I have a first edition World Map Book. it was published in 1981 by the Defense Mapping Agency for NASA, to be used by the space Shuttle crew. My grandfather worked at the DMA, and this was one of his last projects before he retired.

It only has 45 pages, and it only shows airstrips (besides political and geographic features). I believe it was intended to show the orientation and location of places where the shuttle might land in an emergency.

What does it say about Area 51 and Roswell, Nate?

What does it say about Area 51 and Roswell, Nate?

I think it has a picture of a weather balloon. :thumbsup:

-MJ

I have volume 1-5 of DH Wilson's "THe Great war" 1914-1916

mjh-dig away,please .