If you could have 1 book....

[Yossarian Pilgr]

...and one book only for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?


I'd have to say Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It has everything I love about books. Great humor, terrible tragedy, rich (and plentiful) interesting characters, and some great messages as well.

So what about yourself?

[princesspoppi]

Hmmm, tricky. I will really have to think about this one!

[Vincent Black]

The Bible - New American Standard translation. its got everything, sex, violence, revenge, love, hate, incest, a genocide or two and some good poetry.

Why would you want anything else?

[wilbur lim]

I would uniquely choose The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

[johann cruyff]

Do collected works count? If yes, then probably Shakespeare. If not...no idea. The Divine Comedy, perhaps?

[cipherdecoy]

I would uniquely choose The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

uniquely?

[JBI]

Arden Shakespeare.

[blazeofglory]

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. I have read it many times and yet I never grow tired of reading it and every time I end up with a new meaning and fountainhead of inspiration and this book for me can not find and equivalent or surrogacy.

[stlukesguild]

If we might choose a collected works volume I would have to go with Shakespeare... if not, then the Bible would be equally out of bounds and I would clearly go with the Divine Comedy.

[JBI]

If we might choose a collected works volume I would have to go with Shakespeare... if not, then the Bible would be equally out of bounds and I would clearly go with the Divine Comedy.

We nitpicking on the Commedia as well, or we gonna' count all three parts as one?

[Etienne]

Probably Montaigne's essays.

[DeadAsDreams]

Ulysses by James Joyce

I havent actually read it, but from what I hear you could spend your whole life analyzing it.

[TrooperW]

Starship Troopers by Robert Henlein (note: it bares little semblance to the horrible movie).

[stlukesguild]

No... Ulysses isn't that difficult... rather Finnegan's Wake.

[Petrarch's Love]

Complete Shakespeare is the obvious, but if collections are out, I'd have to go with Spenser's Faerie Queene, or perhaps Chaucer's Canterbury tales. Dante wouldn't be half bad either.

[Virgil]

Yeah, I would probably pick Dante also. He contains everything.

[kasie]

What is this - some new kind of diabolical torment? One book for the rest of your life? I hope I'm going to live longer than that. :D I had not thought to expire from sheer boredom! Even the Bard wouldn't keep me going for ever - no, no, no, wherever this Brave New (one book) World is, I don't want to go there....thanks all the same.

[Joreads]

Starship Troopers by Robert Henlein (note: it bares little semblance to the horrible movie).

I saw the movie and hated it, and it put me off reading the book. I might give it a go now that you have said that.

[eyemaker]

hmm.. it's very difficult to choose..
perhaps i'll first think about it.:)

[mona amon]

If collected works and the Bible are out, it's very difficult to choose. Having just one book is just as bad as having no book at all.

Ok, Villette by Charlotte Bronte , until I get bored of it.:yawnb:

[jaywalker]

''The Good Soldier Schweik'', Jaroslav Hasek.

[bazarov]

Don Quijote probably.

[andave_ya]

The Bible

[Virgil]

Don Quijote probably.

:eek2::eek2: Not The Brothers Karamozov?? I'm shocked. ;)

[Nossa]

The Holy Qura'an. I don't really look at it as a literary work, but it does have everything and anything I would possibly need in my life. If I were to choose a work or art, though, I'd go for anything Jane Austen or Khaled Hosseini :D

[bazarov]

:eek2::eek2: Not The Brothers Karamozov?? I'm shocked. ;)

Yes, something strange is happening...;)

[stlukesguild]

Yes, something strange is happening..

Indeed! Next thing you know I'll be choosing something by Bukowski........






Then again..................... It'll never happen.:D

[Virgil]

Yes, something strange is happening..

Indeed! Next thing you know I'll be choosing something by Bukowski........






Then again..................... It'll never happen.:D

No I can't imagine that. :lol: If it did the aliens would be taking over. :alien:

[mtpspur]

I'm choosing Matthew Henry's Commentary to the Holy Bible so I get his comments AND the Bible and it fits the rules here.

[mmaria]

"How to survive and be happy without reading books". I don't suppose there is such book, but... since you've asked...

[Whifflingpin]

"Cottage Economy" by William Cobbett.

The one-book-only scenario implies some kind of catastrophe, and Cottage Economy contains enough practical advice, and mind-food, to reconstruct a society.

[Mr. Vandemar]

I would take the Bible. I think it's one of the very few (if not only) books that could sustain me for the next 60-70 years.

[Petronius]

"Ada or Ardor"... but if I can have an unlimited amount of pencils, then The World's Largest Notebook.

[bazarov]

Virg, it's longer then BK :D

[hhc]

A Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Just because it was the book that pushed me to literature for the first time. Sentimental reasons...

[WICKES]

Hmmm... well Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall or Vile Bodies would make me laugh. So would one of PG Wodehouse's Jeeves books or Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim.

If I were to choose poetry then possibly Larkin's collected poems or Blake's- or maybe T S Eliot...or perhaps Paradise Lost? No, actually, make it Wordsworth's Prelude.

For sheer intellectual stimulation I'd think about Aldous Huxley's collected letters (over 1000 pages).

Novels?... Tom Jones?
Middlemarch?
Pickwick Papers?
Brideshead Revisited?

[Pecksie]

You should read Argentine writer César Aira's ironic comments on that question of "what book would you take to a desert island".

I think every book lover in the world will agree that one book would never, ever be enough. Unless your rescue ship was already in sight.

[novelsryou]

Curious George Goes To The Moon - I had this book as a kid and loved it. In old age, when dementia sets in, I'm sure I'll love it again. I'll read it every day.

[Tersely]

Curious George Goes To The Moon - I had this book as a kid and loved it. In old age, when dementia sets in, I'm sure I'll love it again. I'll read it every day.

I was just bout to say The Fire Cat. I am...easily amused. :D

[mangueken]

I would definitely take Don Quixote.

[Nico87]

If This Is A Man / The Truce by Primo Levi. I absolutely loved it and I think it's a very important book.

[Seabird111]

Either The Art of War or Haunted (by Chuck Palahniuk. Well, not The Art of War, obviously.)

[Willard]

James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson. A rich and splendid book .

[The Comedian]

Walden

[DapperDrake]

I'd probably have to bible too, not that i'm especially religious or even especially christian but it's simply the only book I can think of that could possibly hold my attention for a life time.
Mind you I'd probably change my mind after a few month and ask for some giant literary classic instead :D