I don't know if this has been attempted before, but I think we should establish a long standing thread of what book each poster would memorize if they had to pick only one with which to restart a barren society.
Mine: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis.
"Crime and Punishment"-Dostoyevsky
shareFarenheit 451.
This book has been picked before by others, I know. But, come on, let's put it to a vote. Few other books would remind so well why it is that we saved any books at all in the first place. If the world were to end, and we could save only one book why not this timeless fable aout a time when the destruction of ideas lead to the destructin of civilization. In such a dire future, ironically, this work would be both prophecy and ancient text. It would lead us to value our ability to read, write and think and respect the rights of ohers to learn and teach us. Ray Bradbury, if his book were the chosen one, would as surprised as any. (He's a very humle man, and a very underrated talent. Genius, actually) I mean, seriously, all others books date terribly in comparison, and even the apocalyptic ones with "universal" overones (Brave New World, 1984) do not due justice to the important theme of literary freedom the way this book does. Quite simply (and I'll repeat this) if we ever had to choose only one book, THIS BOOK would tell us why it was even worth the bother to save ANY books at all. If ever this were a sacred text, the future would be bright indeed.
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury :)
share[deleted]
just a little tongue-in-cheek; Lord of the Flies (or, How George W. Got There, and There Again)
Hugs,
Panesprite
"The High and The Mighty" by Earnest K. Gann, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, and "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote would be my choices, for no particular reason other than I found each of these books particularly appealing and I've read them all twice. Committing an entire novel, even a somewhat smallish one, to memory must be a daunting task -- I wonder if it's ever been done? I probably have the lyrics to several hundred songs committed to memory, as do many people, but that's a much different thing, since the melody usually triggers the mind to recall the words more or less automatically. Rote memorization of an entire novel would be quite an achievement since it would require the straight, photographic imprinting of the words on the mind. Books of poetry would be easier, since poems rhyme and are in small segments which are more easily memorized, like song lyrics. I hope this thread continues, the choices so far are quite interesting.
Gandhi memorized The Bhagavad Gita but it was probably the sanskrit version that rhymes.
share2001 a space odyssey, by Arther C. Clarke
Maybe: The Wheel of time, Robert Jordan (entire series) but I don't think that counts as one book.
I was going to say catcher in the Rye, but I guess I'll have to say "of Mice and men" by Steinbeck, or maybe "The Old man and the Sea" by Hemmingway, "Catch-22", or "I know why the caged bird sings". Also, "Siddhartha" by Hesse would be at the top of this list. "All quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque, "Howl" by Ginsberg and finally, "A Coney Island of the Mind", by Ferlenghetti.
Sorry, it would be hard to narrow to one :P
This would be an extremely daunting task... I do wonder if anyone has memorized an entire book word for word, it would be a scary undertaking.
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"There are worse things in life than being wet, so let us get on with it."
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