What three books would you take with you?

[darynthe]

If you moved to another country and had only espace for three or four books in your suitcase, then what would you bring with you? I am not talking of your favorite books exactly, but those you really couldn't leave behinid for any reason, including sentimental ones.

This happened to me and the decision was difficult. I was thinking about it when in the thread of MBTI logic order.

I brought to Canada with me:

My Bible (it was a gift from my dad when I turned fifteen)
Irving Copi "Elementary Logic" (my childhood favorite book and I still do not feels safe withouto it around, it belonged to my dad)
Fairy Tale Interpretation by Marie-Louise von Franz (I borrowed it from a library, I should give it back someday. I wanted it to help me write novels)

[ElstonGunn]

If you moved to another country and had only espace for three or four books in your suitcase, then what would you bring with you?

"Espace"? Is that a typo, a Spanish accent, or something involving space on computers? :p (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

I'd be tempted to take a Bible, for the same reason you have-- it was a gift. I think I might even have been 15 when I got it, too. Bibles aren't hard to find, so it's not like I'd need to bring it, but I've got an attachment to this specific one.

I've got a big Volume Library in my house somewhere. It's the kind of book that would crush a person's spine if you dropped it on them. So I'd bring that, just in case I needed to crush spines. ...Or if I wanted to look up something in a 1970s encyclopedia.

For the third one, I'm trying to think of a book I have that couldn't be replaced easily. My brother once found a history textbook from the Civil War era. Something like that would be worth holding on to. Maybe I'd poke around in the attic and look for something like that before I moved.

[darynthe]

"Espace"? Is that a typo, a Spanish accent, or something involving space on computers? :p (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

LMAO!!! Ok, you got me. It is Spanish accent. I pronounce it like this. :p

Seriously, my English originally comes from books, not from actually using it, so I often use obsolete words. I just check out and "espace" is the same as space: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



I've got a big Volume Library in my house somewhere. It's the kind of book that would crush a person's spine if you dropped it on them. So I'd bring that, just in case I needed to crush spines. ...Or if I wanted to look up something in a 1970s encyclopedia.



Volume Library? I am not familiar with that. Explain.

[jakeordie]

This has happened to me also, except I fit about 6-8 in my backpack. Here's the Top 3;

Anthem - Ayn Rand
Illusions - Richard Bach
The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

The books themselves have no sentimental value for me, I chose these purely for the impact of the authors' words.....and they pack light. :)

[gestalt]

Curious George Goes Fishing
My Kindle reader.
Thrump-O-Moto.

[CatalystAK]

Hmmm, good question...

My top 3 books would include

Pears Cyclopedia Its a UK encyclopedia, I have an edition that is from 1943 and it is full of really dated things but it really makes me think

Dune By Frank Herbert. It was really the first novel that I ever read and understood, I love the whole series

The Complete stories of Sherlock Holmes A book I got as a present when I turned 13, it is all the Holmes stories in one book(its huge) and I love them all.

[Merle]

I would take...hmmn... this is a very hard question.

1. The Complete English Poems - George Herbert
Because he's my favourite poet, and with poems it's like you get ultra condensed literature - there's so many more hours reading in a book of poems than a novel.

2. An English to whatever the language of the country I'm moving to is dictionary.

3. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
Because it's my comfort read and I can read it a zillion times and it still makes me happy.

I don't have any books I'm sentimental about in terms of their actual physical bookness...

The three above I'd take because they'd be the most helpful to me in my first few weeks in a new place.

Another three would perhaps be a few books that would be really hard to find again because they're out of print etc but they're pretty esoteric reading... so wouldn't satisfy my need for immediate reading pleasure upon arrival:

1. The Use of Speech - Nathalie Sarraute

2. Lust - Geoff Ryman

3. The Poetry of Meditation - Louis Martz

[Homini Lupus]

I had to do this a few months ago. I chose:
1) the Bible
2) a book of vegetarian recipes
3) a book of dietology
(notes on 2 and 3: I had to start cooking by myself so I wanted to organize it as rationally as possible)
4) a survivalist manual
5) a tourist guide

[Frodis]

I'll have to go with sentimentality for my picks:

1) My dissertation - it's not exactly riveting, but it would be damn near impossible to replace

2) The Revolution: A Manifesto - signed by Ron Paul

3) The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora - signed by Michael Nesmith (yes, the Monkee Mike Nesmith) :)

[floramacivor]

My Kindle reader.
.

Can I do that? My eReader has lots and lots of books on it and takes up less space than a book.

No? OK. What about very small books? if I take pocket-sized books, can I take six? YES? OK. I'll take:

1. Bible (I have a really small one)
2. Grimms fairy tales
3. Jane Eyre
4. Ivanhoe
5. Wuthering Heights
6. Oliver Twist

Maybe I'll put three of those back to make room for The Lord of the Rings; if only it was available in a compact Fun size.

[darynthe]

Can I do that? My eReader has lots and lots of books on it and takes up less space than a book.

No? OK. What about very small books? if I take pocket-sized books, can I take six? YES? OK. I'll take:

1. Bible (I have a really small one)
2. Grimms fairy tales
3. Jane Eyre
4. Ivanhoe
5. Wuthering Heights
6. Oliver Twist

Maybe I'll put three of those back to make room for The Lord of the Rings; if only it was available in a compact Fun size.


Oh, I just checked. I also brought my Jane Eyre. It was the first book I bought with my own salary.

I am curious, why the Grimms fairy tales?





darynthe added to this post, 0 minutes and 37 seconds later...

I'll have to go with sentimentality for my picks:

1) My dissertation - it's not exactly riveting, but it would be damn near impossible to replace


Excellent point. I felt my dissertation at home myself. I am not attached to it, it was no good.





darynthe added to this post, 0 minutes and 39 seconds later...

I had to do this a few months ago. I chose:
1) the Bible
2) a book of vegetarian recipes
3) a book of dietology



Sheer genius. I should have brought cooking books!

[Farmer Joe]

This is a hard question. I'm going to assume I'm going somewhere I won't be able to find books in English, or that I have to give the rest of mine up...

I would take:

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to freedom - It's tied for my favorite book of all time, and it's also the only book my Grandmother ever gave me.

The Odyssey - The other book tied for my favorite of all time

Dune - I have three copies, two of which were destroyed in foreign countries; the first two were given to me by my Dad.

Actually, I read all three of those books in various foreign countries.

[Indy]

I've faced this question not too long ago when I moved abroad.

First of all, I don't really go anywhere long-term without "The Importance of Living", by Lin Yutang. Absolutely amazing. I occasionally pick it up and I'm always impressed by its practical, humane and humorous philosophy. With chapters as "On the enjoyment of sitting in chairs", "On having a stomach" and "the Art of travelling", you can't help but feel inspired.

Secondly, I found "7 habits of highly effective people", by Stephen Covey, to be very beneficial to me and I experienced it to have useful things to say to help me get things done. I can sometimes use some structural advise of how to organize my life better (not a very strong J), so I normally pack that one for sure.

I carried Walden around with me for a long time, but have grown less impressed with it.

So thirdly, the Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa. The story of the greatest scholar of Meji Japan. Growing up in small country town, developing a sense of cosmopolitanism in a closed environment, being one of the first (of his country in his case) to go abroad; I really connect with it.

[floramacivor]

I am curious, why the Grimms fairy tales?


I limited myself to the books in my pocket-sized collection, and that's one of them. I chose that rather than others in my collection because I love fairy tales.

If I was going to choose only three from everything in the world, my choices probably wouldn't be much different, except that I'd have to narrow my books to two so I could take The Lord of the Rings.

Truthfully, though, if this were a real life situation, I'd take my eReader (my PDA) and The Lord of the Rings. If I could put The Lord of the Rings on my PDA, then I would just take my PDA, and then I'd have room for some Clif bars besides.





floramacivor added to this post, 1 minutes and 35 seconds later...


I carried Walden around with me for a long time, but have grown less impressed with it.
.

If I'd had to answer this question three years ago, I probably would have put Walden on it. But I've grown less impressed with it. Maybe I've become more cynical.

[tntblaster]

Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
The Bible
Travel guide to my new country.

[Kisai]

When I went to Thailand, I brought textbooks on circuit analysis, calculus, and physics.