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.
Alice Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
If you can't count it or measure it it's an opinion and not a fact.
The Rume diary, or heart of darkness. As I lay here dying by faulker.
Too Weird to live Too rare to die.
Who memorizes anything anymore? I'm going to go with poetry, because I think it would be nigh unto impossible for any 21st century person to memorize a whole book (except maybe bits of the bible and Shakespeare, and thats pretty much poetry anyway).
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
Animal Farm by G. Orwell
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Huckleberry Finn
shareI suppose it would depend on two factors; practicality and merit.
To the former, I must choose the Enchiridion (Handbook) by Epictetus. At only thirty-four pages (George Long translation) it might the longest book I could, hopefully, memorize successfully.
To the latter, it would be nice to be able to memorize the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic edited by A. R. George. Although impossible (for me at least) to remember both volumes word for word, its place in ancient literature makes this work an absolute essential to say the least!
Evil is only good perverted.share
I'd be happy to memorize "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradford for such a daunting purpose.
shareEither "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving or "Hamlet"
I'm glad that the great Orwell is covered. I guess it would be my civic duty to memorize "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley.
shareNo one has even mentioned Vonnegut? What a shame.. I will pick Breakfast of Champions.. I re-read it enough anyway.
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