Ah, summer! The time to kick back in the sun, sucking up both gin and tonics and intellectual stimulation. But why be the hundredth person on the beach getting sand in Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth or smudging Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion with SPF 45? Put some idiosyncrasy into your life, folks! To help guide you through the waters of the literary unknown, we asked a number of authors to name their favorite obscure book. Below, their replies, which we pass along as suggestions for your arcane summer reading.

Jennifer Egan
You Can't Live Forever, by Harold Q. Masur

John Banville
Some People, by Harold Nicolson

Donna Tartt
Blood in the Parlor, by Dorothy Dunbar

Rick Moody
Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, by Ben Watson

Jonathan Ames
The Lunatic at Large, by J. Storer Clouston

Nathan Englander
Gob's Grief, by Chris Adrian

Tom Bissell
Invasion of the Space Invaders, by Martin Amis

Colum McCann
Fup, by Jim Dodge

George Pelecanos
Hard Rain Falling, by Don Carpenter