If all books were banned and you could save one, what would it be?

Does the question refer specifically to published books or to books as in, the notebook of ideas and so on that I keep to help with writing?

If it’s the former, probably Fahrenheit 451.

The dictionary (assuming that counts).

My own, simply because there are photos of my dogs in it - and those of friends - which I don't have in any other medium any more.

My own, simply because there are photos of my dogs in it - and those of friends - which I don't have in any other medium any more. The dogs are no longer alive, in many cases.

The Bible.

You should read Farenheit 451 (or watch it) by Ray Bradbury. In it all books are banned and firemen set fire to them.

There's a colony of people, outlawed in a way, dedicated to memorizing a single book per person, establishing a living librarary.

The Anarchist's Cookbook.

I know how to deal with book banners.

But seriously? Ovid's Metamorphoses.

My own. Everybody who wanted to read something would have to buy it and I'd be filthy rich in no time!

Mwah-ha-haaa!

The Bible

The Bible, the only book that can really save lives.

ED

The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe - he is still the master of the macabre

Keyboard Hound said:

Would you care to post a reason for that choice?

Click to expand...

For Ovid's Metamorphoses? Umm...because I like it. Do I need another reason?

It's a great piece of classical literature that's inspired many great works of art to follow it. Why should it die? Someone will save the Bible or the other great Judeo-Christian books. *shrug* No need to worry about them. But Ovid's Metamorphoses was a catalyst for inspiration throughout the centuries since it was first published in Rome and it should not lie burned at the bottom of an ashpile of intolerance.

Then again, Ovid was exiled and some of his work banned by the Emperor. I'm never beyond giving a nod to irony.

Mine. Then I'd sell the heck out of it.

Then again, it might be cool to be on a banned book list. You know, up there with Catcher in the Rye?

Man, that would take some doing williebee. *grin* But, if you figure out how to do it, I'll beta for you gladly.

Any epic tale - the Illiad, for example. I'm an English-speaker, so I would choose an epic that has been translated into my cultural reference.

It could jumpstart the urge to tell stories and an oral tradition could begin again. Farenheit 451 is a brilliant work, but I think we would come up with the oral tradition without it, so I would save an epic sample.

Brave New World, so we can see what we have become.

Richard

I'm operating on the idea that I would be saving literally one book, hidden in a secret place, protected from the book-banners. In that situation, I'm saving my copy of The Riverside Shakespeare. No matter what mood you're in, always something to read in there.

Either The Collected Works of Shakespeare, or Ulysses, because one could reconstruct many other great works of literature from the homages/pastiches in them (for instance, the Odyssey!)

Like Water for Chocolate

Okay it's going to sound silly to some since you're all mentioning big important books like the Bible but the book I would save is my copy of a Reader's Digest collection called The World's Best Fairytales. Seriously, it's this specific copy because that's the book my dad read to my brother and I every night before we went to sleep when we were little. That's the book, those are the stories, out of which my love for literature arose. And I still love them. Yes I adore works by Ray Bradbury and Stephen King and Shakespeare's fantastic and a lot of other books have important and interesting things to say, but if I could just choose one it would be the first one, the one that's been read so much over the years it is literally starting to fall apart and which I want to have around to read to my own kids.

I'm sure NASA has a book on how to build a rocket ship. That'd be the one for me. Goodbye and don't look back!
C

Why just save one? I'd save thousands of them - I'd fill the spare room and the garage and the loft. I'd keep some in my desk at work, I'd wrap some in plastic and put them in the garden shed, I'd ask friends and family to help and I'd work to overthrow the ban. I'd copy as many as I could onto discs and save them too and I'd circulate them on the internet. If I could get hold of more books than I could save, I'd hand them to strangers in the hope that they'd want to save them too.

Basically, I will never accept a ban on books.

The book I always read when I'm depressed: The Princess Bride.