Which book would you save?

May 1, 2008


Today is the final day of the Sioux Falls Big Read.

This year, we celebrated Fahrenheit 451. We’ve promoted book discussions all month long. And tonight, we’ll be putting on a mixer at the Museum of Visual Materials downtown, featuring writing contest winners, The Smoke and Mirrors Band and various local personalities discussing a question often brought up when F451 is mentioned.

If all of the books were being burned, and you could risk your life to save one book…which one would you save?

Do you save an important book – one that has changed the lives of millions of readers? Do you save Beowulf – the English language’s first recorded words – or Plato’s Republic or The Bible? Do you save The Diary of Anne Frank or Fahrenheit 451 itself?

Or do you save your favorite book? Do you stand aside, allowing the rest of the risk takers to worry about the Great Canon of Literature while you grab the book that’s meant the most to you and you alone.

This will come as no surprise: I’m going to lay claim to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath – for both reasons, really. It’s an Important Book. And, it’s one of my favorites. I’ve always liked East of Eden more, and would probably consider The Pearl and Travels with Charley as well, but The Grapes of Wrath is just more important to literature as a whole.

What about you?

Which book would you save?

Leave your answer in the comments – or post it on your own blog. Let’s send The Big Read out in style.

Tags: Books, Literature |

Comments

4 Responses to “Which book would you save?”

  1. Lisa Redmond (illuminato) on May 1st, 2008 136 pm

    I would probably suggest “To Kill A Mockingbird” for the same reasons you selected “The Grapes of Wrath.” An important book to our culture, a wonderful literary read, and one of my all time favorites. (But I agree with you on “East of Eden” as well, so fun to read in a dramatic soap operaish way!)

  2. Will on May 1st, 2008 349 pm

    I loved Grapes of Wrath, but it’s just too sad and depressing for it to be the only book you have. I’d pick East of Eden over Grapes of Wrath.

    But picking for myself, the first thing that comes to mind is Ken Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion.” If you haven’t read it, you should, and then do the book tourney again. It’s final four material. It’s that good.

    Tom Robbins also comes to mind. But I want the whole Tom Robbins collection, not just one book.

    But hell, if I only get to save one book, I better make it count. War & Peace. Or Atlas Shrugged. Two enormously long books that I’ve never read but want to. Or the Bible.

  3. jim on May 1st, 2008 1031 pm

    i would save the Preacher comic book series. i know that technically they are nine seperate books but i could solve that problem with glue and alot of tape. best story ever, front to back, it is priceless.

    “you are a wanker, noun, one who wanks” -cassidy the irish vampire

    “DOOMCOCK!!” -herr starr

  4. Doyle on August 11th, 2008 1203 pm

    I would have to save the book of Revelation, because if our society ever does ban literature and/or the Bible, that’s the time when we will need to know what’s next. Ecclesiastes has always been one of my favorites, and I would most definately memorize that one too. It’s quite a coincidence that the two books I want to memorize the most are the ones that Montag memorized in the book. Ecclesiastes expresses vanity of this life, and Revelation gives us the hope of the next.

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