# Which 3 Books Would You Save?



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I know we have this conversation pretty often but I haven't seen it lately, so thought I'd start a new thread. I'm tired of the classic desert island scenario, so let's do it differently. Let's say it's the apocalypse. Zombies have eaten all the Kindle batteries in the world but you have the opportunity to preserve just three books for yourself/future generations, assuming you're nice enough to share. You can translate "books" as loosely as you like to include poetry or plays. Which three do you save? 

I've been pondering the dilemma (because you know this situation is going to come up sooner or later) for the whole of a half hour and here's what I've got, in no particular order:

1. The Complete Works of James Herriot (assuming they all exist in one thick tome).
2. The Bible (KJV, because I like the old-fashioned language).
3. ..... 

Here's where I'm stumped. There are so many options, I can't make up my mind.  One thing's for sure, I want everything in hardback for durability.

What about everybody else? What are your three picks?


----------



## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Completely off the top of my head, which has to be the most honest reaction:

1. A Farewell to Arms -- Ernest Hemingway (and will people please stop spelling that with two ems?)

2. Leaving Las Vegas -- John O'Brien.

3. Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury.


----------



## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

1. John Adams by David McCullough
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. Salem's Lot by Stephen King


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I knew there was a reason I hated zombies.

1. Outlander
2. All of Susan Howatch's books
3. The complete Harry Potter series including the schoolbooks and Beedle the Bard

If I can't take all those with me, I'm not going.


----------



## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Stephen King's The Stand

Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life

Blake Crouch's RUN

Yeah, I kind of like horror/thrillers and would rather be entertained for the rest of my life than enlightened.


----------



## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I think I'd rather be eaten by Zombie's than live with only 3 books  . I have a hard to time thinking of 3. I don't really re read a lot so  I can't comprehend not being able to read new-to-me books anymore. Just can't compute. 

But if I have to pick I pick
Angelique series by Anne Golon. It would connect me to my mother for the rest of my miserable zombie infiltrated life as she gave them to me when I was 12. It also kicked my love of reading into overdrive. Also some of the best researched historical novels I have ever read. So they deserve to be preserved. I could also re-read those. 

Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann. I think after apocalypse children deserve to be freaked out by that book too, just like I was.   

And something by Jane Austen I guess. The all in one book.


----------



## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

1. LOTR

2. Complete Works of Shakespeare

3. 1001 ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

1. The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 by Roger Zelazny (not enKindled  )
2. Night Watch (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett
3. Survival Wisdom & Know How: Everything You Need to Know to Thrive in the Wilderness


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't know but I'd want them to be really, really thick and in hard back.  Good for reading AND for throwing at the zombies.  Maybe one of those Oxford Dictionaries.

Betsy


----------



## MalloryMoutinho (Aug 24, 2012)

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Les Miserables (I'd try to sneak in the soundtrack too lol)
3. Complete HP series


----------



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Something tells me those of you picking survival books are going to outlive us all.


----------



## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

In the advent of an actual Zombie Plague, books I don't actually own:

1. Do-It-Yourself Gun Repair: Gunsmithing at Home
2. Generators and Inverters: Building Small Combined Heat and Power Systems For Remote Locations and Emergency Situations
3. Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine Manual

Other than that, for long term re-readability for entertainment:

1. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
2. The Complete Poems and Plays of T.S. Eliot
3. The Complete Works of Plato


----------



## Rachel Schurig (Apr 9, 2011)

Atunah said:


> I think I'd rather be eaten by Zombie's than live with only 3 books . I have a hard to time thinking of 3. I don't really re read a lot so I can't comprehend not being able to read new-to-me books anymore. Just can't compute.


I'm with you, Atunah, I don't think I could pick three! If I did, it would take forever to choose, and the Zombies would probably eat me while I mulled over which Jane Austen book to take.


----------



## Jenni Norris (Oct 10, 2012)

1. LOTR
2. Complete works of William Shakespeare
3. The Edmond's Cookbook (a kiwi classic) OR Nigella Lawson's How to Eat


----------



## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

1. Complete works of Jack London
2. Complete works of Edgar Allen Poe
3. Complete works of Stephen King

(I already know how to hunt & butcher animals for food, make soap & candles, quilt, and a few other survival skills)


----------



## Lensman (Aug 28, 2012)

Desert Island Discs, on BBC Radio 4, always assumed that you automatically have copies of the Bible and Shakespeare - can we take them as read?

Assuming we can, I'd suggest...

1. War and Peace  (if I haven't got many books to choose from, let's have something long and weighty - and again, it makes a good thing to hit the zombies with in extremis).

2. The complete Terry Pratchett - because in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse I would need something to remind me to laugh, occasionally).

3. A complete Encylopedia Britannica  (or similar) which I can use when I start trying to rebuild civilisation, probably all on my own, once the zombies have been defeated and the ZA has been consigned to history.


----------



## Rachel Schurig (Apr 9, 2011)

BTackitt said:


> 1. Complete works of Jack London
> 2. Complete works of Edgar Allen Poe
> 3. Complete works of Stephen King
> 
> (*I already know how to hunt & butcher animals for food, make soap & candles, quilt, and a few other survival skills*)


Note to self: in case of Zombie Apocalypse, go find BTackitt.


----------



## WriteJoMichaels (Oct 29, 2012)

Hmmmm... Just 3 huh?

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary - Good times, that!
Special Edition of HP and the Half-Blood Prince - I paid through the nose for that book...
Pride and Prejudice - I read it too often to leave it behind 

You guys and gals have some interesting lists. I particularly liked 1001 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse. hehe


----------



## Jackal Lantern Books (Aug 30, 2011)

I thought at first this would be hard, but then it came to me pretty easy! 

1- Jane Eyre
2- Fahrenheit 451
3- Harry Potter ... the entire series... I know, not really one book but just have to have them all!


----------



## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I've been thinking about it, and I think I need a 4th choice. The collected works of John Steinbeck. He just has such a way with words.. the opening paragraph of The Grapes of Wrath should never be lost.


----------



## cekilgore (Oct 31, 2012)

What a fun question. You can learn things about someone by their answers..

1) Completed works of kahlil gibran
2)Athem - Ayn Rand
3)The Giver - Lois Lowry

anyone sensing a theme


----------



## Kwalker (Aug 23, 2012)

1) Complete works of Shakespeare (Brilliance like that deserves to be preserved at all costs)

2) The Diary of Anne Frank (I hope we could learn from our past mistakes)

3) Fifty Shades of Gray ( Sorry, if my husband gets eaten by zombies...)

I actually had a really hard time picking for the 3rd spot.


----------



## Moira Bianchi (Oct 31, 2012)

Mmmm...
1- Pride and Prejudice
2- One day
3- The picture of Dorian Grey


----------



## Rachel Schurig (Apr 9, 2011)

Kwalker said:


> 1) Complete works of Shakespeare (Brilliance like that deserves to be preserved at all costs)
> 
> 2) The Diary of Anne Frank (I hope we could learn from our past mistakes)
> 
> ...


----------



## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Well, there's a difference between complete works and individual books.

But since complete works are easier:

1. the complete works of Isaac Asimov
2. the complete works of Plato
3. the complete works of Charles Dickens


----------



## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

1. the Bible
2. the complete works of Shakespeare
3. SAS Survival Manual by John Wiseman


----------



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Well, if its a Zombie apocalypse, then one of the three should be _The Zombie Survival Guide_ by Max Brooks


----------



## HildaR (Nov 17, 2012)

Complete works of George Orwell
Hidden Agendas by John Pilger
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes (because it presents such a wealth of original ideas and never-ending food for thought)


----------



## markarayner (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm going to go with the spirit of this, and assume single-volume only:

1. The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Single-Volume 8th Edition). This is for posterity.
2. Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973: Cat's Cradle / God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater / Slaughterhouse-Five / Breakfast of Champions / Stories (Library of America, No. 216).  This is for my own sanity.
3. Some kind of excellent survival manual. (Looking for suggestions on this one!)


----------



## gljones (Nov 6, 2012)

1) Tolkien, LOTR
2)Asimov- Foundation series
3) Frank Herbert-Dune series

I know I cheated, more than three books as these are sets of books, but you get the idea.


----------



## gljones (Nov 6, 2012)

Geoffrey said:



> Well, if its a Zombie apocalypse, then one of the three should be _The Zombie Survival Guide_ by Max Brooks


Your chart made me snort cofee out my nose


----------



## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden 
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

At least those are my choices today. Tomorrow could be different...


----------



## Iren (Nov 23, 2012)

Judging from the answers, Shakespear, Tolkien, King, and Rowling will make it to the post-zombie generation.


----------



## Pawz4me (Feb 14, 2009)

The Bible
Some sort of survival manual
A book on identifying herbs/plants and their medicinal uses (assuming this wouldn't be covered thoroughly in a survival manual)


----------



## carolineluvs2rt (Mar 31, 2011)

Hoping my husband would be with me for obvious reasons, but also because he is a very handy guy and would figure out the survival part. Hard to pick just three, but I'll try. 

1. Bible
2. The works of Charles Dickens in one mega-volume (I made up the one-volume part)
3. Complete works of Shakespeare in one volume (this actually exists)


----------



## Greg Stahl (Nov 11, 2012)

I liked the mention of a Norton Anthology above. Keeping in literary spirit, three such anthologies would make an awful lot of sense. Especially the Ancient World Lit one. They've lasted this long--they should definitely make it into the future.

But, for the sake of the discussion, I'll be overly practical:

An topographical atlas (to find my way around)
A book on fly-tying (to feed myself)
365 Sex Positions (to keep things interesting during the process of recolonization)


----------



## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Toughie - just 3? If I must:

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Pillars of the Earth
3. The ASOIAF series (yes, I know that's cheating but it's a set!)


----------

