Long Day

I'll get to Books That Make Civilization Better tomorrow. My time sense is screwed up, and it felt like a longer day than usual today. In the meantime, suggested books for the list are welcome.

There's also this from Sean at IFTF:

A lot of free research via our library - http://www.iftf.org/library

Enjoy!

--Sean

Books to Save in the Event of the End of Civilization

I know, this isn't a happy topic, but it's also an excellent way to focus the mind because it causes the individual to think about what's important, good, and fundamental about their society. Below is a partial list of the items I've collected over the years that I consider "keepers." My complete library can be found at LibraryThing.com. I probably need to add more. I've also solicited inputs from friends on Facebook and Twitter to see what people say...if anything.

Non-Fiction and Reference

• The Bible (couple of versions)
• The Book of Common Prayer
• The Qu'ran
• Physics
• Meteorology Today
• Gray's Anatomy (actually, I think I gave this to one of my bartenders in Orlando--her kid was going into medicine, and I was trying to encourage a bright young mind)
• U.S. Army Field Survival Manual
• A Step Farther Out, by Jerry Pournelle
• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon

Fiction

• Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
• The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
• The Romantic Manifesto, by Ayn Rand
• The Past Through Tomorrow, by Robert A. Heinlein
• Expanded Universe, by Robert A. Heinlein
• Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!, by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Complete Short Stories, Ernest Hemingway
• The Norton Anthology of Modern American Poetry
• The Hugo Award Winners, Vols. 1 & 2
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans
• Shogun, by James Clavell
• War Day, by James Kunetka and Whitley Strieber
• A Gift Upon the Shore, by M. K. Wren
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
• Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
• I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
• Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Friend Recommendations

"Well, as much as I find them loathsome, contradictory and -- depending the translation -- poorly written, all the so-called holy books: Torah, New Testament, Quran, the Mahabharata. But I would include them with the other great mythologies, The Iliad, The Aeneid, The Odyssey, The Tain, the Epic of Gilgamesh as they really did encompass some of the earliest rules of law."

"The Lost World"

"I like anything by John Irving and Ernest Hemingway"

"Homesteading Space, obviously. The most thorough history books I could find, and as many science texts as I had room for. And A Canticle for Liebowitz, just for the irony."

"I would preserve the 'Great Books' collection from St. Johns College. They basically run the gamut from history, literature, mathematics, etc. Always been fascinated by their curriculum."

"I was thinking Cat in the Hat & Where the Sidewalk Ends. Oh, and the Calvin & Hobbes collection!"

"Where the Wild Things Are"

"All the Discworld books!"