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[fakefaker]

Halley's comet hit an asteroid and is heading towards earth and you have enough time to read 5 books or graphic novels. What do you read? I don't care if it's a first time read or something you've read a thousand times, it's all up to you*. Bonus points if you explain how you chose your last book to ever read.

*Each book in a series counts as one book, so LOTR's counts as three books.

For me it's:

1. Dune by Frank Herbert- Never read, heard it's good
2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry-Never read, heard it's really good
3. Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang- Have to read something Canadian before I go.
4. Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor- Reread since it's one of my fav books
5. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison- Final book is a reread of a recent classic and a good way to go. If you haven't, I suggest you go find yourself a copy.

So what're your five books?

 

[Regiruler]

5 unreleased books of ASoIaF so the world will never end.

 

[UltraMav]

1. The Bible.
2. The Quran
3. The Torah
4. The Bhagavad Gita
5. The Sutras

Covering my bases.

 

[andrerobot]

1. The Art of The Deal.
2. The Bible.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I'd be fine with Calvin and Hobbes collections.

 

[Aquavelvaman]

Rich Dad Poor Dad 5 times

 

[Unmasked Ferret]

I'd be fine with Calvin and Hobbes collections.

I was going to list off some of my three favorite books and two I just want to read, but honestly this is the answer.

 

[Goldenroad]

If I have time to read 5 books, we're good for at least another 10 years. I probably wouldn't even get around to them.

Hypothetically though, I'd probably just finish a bunch of books I've started and never finished like American Gods, Hyperion, Cryptonomicon, A Scanner Darkly and...hell I guess read the whole Lord of the Rings again.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I'd probably pick four Shakespeare plays, two I've read (Hamlet and The Tempest) and two I haven't (Macbeth and Midsummer's Nights Dream) and then Good Omens because fuck yeah that book rules.

 

[Quotient]

1. The Bible.
2. The Quran
3. The Torah
4. The Bhagavad Gita
5. The Sutras

Covering my bases.

Smart move.

 

[Noaloha]

Realistically (for whatever that's worth) I'd opt for unread books, but right now I couldn't begin to start prioritising down stuff from a bucket list, so I'll take the scenario as more of a "grab five books from your shelf and run to the shelter" and stick to known quantities that I'd be happy to have with me to reread (and simply open at a random page and dip into) multiple times over.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
From Hell
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Everything Is Illuminated
Sophie's World

 

[umop_3pisdn]

The Five Nikayas

Like I'm cramming for a test.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Divine Comedy(That counts as 3 right?)

.
.
.
Inferno
Purgatorio
Paradiso
HitchHikers Guide(Whole damn thing in one binded book, that counts right?)
Harry Potter #6

 

[PassiveObserver]

Guess I'd read The Brothers Karamazov at long last. Then pick off a few of my favorite authors' unwieldier books, like Hesse's The Glass Bead Game and John Barth's Giles-Goat Boy. Maybe pick up Infinite Jest again. Finally, I'd reread White Noise.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

i'm still waiting for Garth Ennis Punisher Max to be on omnibus so i guess i'll read the first 5 of the graphic novels since it's not in one collection.

 

[Staccat0]

Don Quixote (classic bit of human achievement )

Coming Attractions (my wife liked this as a kid and read it time when we first started dating)

Eyes of the Dragon (Meant a lot to me as a kid)

Satanic Verses (I've put it off for years)

A photo album of my family

 

[Spuck-uk]

Can I just have five copies of Blood Meridian?

 

[Spuck-uk]

Realistically (for whatever that's worth) I'd opt for unread books, but right now I couldn't begin to start prioritising down stuff from a bucket list, so I'll take the scenario as more of a "grab five books from your shelf and run to the shelter" and stick to known quantities that I'd be happy to have with me to reread (and simply open at a random page and dip into) multiple times over.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
From Hell
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Everything Is Illuminated
Sophie's World

Michael Chabon is really, really good

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Can I just have five copies of Blood Meridian?

I like you.

 

[pa22word]

Leviathan, hobbes
Crime and punishment, dostoyvesky
Solaris, lem
Complete works of Lovecraft (cheating I know, but eh)

Spoiler

if the above doesn't count then critique of pure reason, kant

Augustus, John Edward Williams

The last book I chose just because it's probably my favorite book. The last chapter of it is just pure magic put to page.

 

[Sidewinder]

1. Lord of the Rings trilogy

2. The Stand (Stephen King) Haven't read it in a long time.

3. The Asian Saga from James Clavell (King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, Gai-jin, Noble House and Whirlwind) Read them all but for Noble House and Whirlwind...most epic and seemingly historically accurate books I've ever read!

4. Dantes' Inferno - need to know where I'm heading next

5. IT (Stephen King)

 

[MadSexual]

Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coetzee
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Tropical of Cancer by Henry Miller
The Stranger by Albert Camus


Those five books are more than enough to take a person through a human experience, so I think I'd both be full of the vibrance of a tragic and beautiful life as well as confirmed in my resolve that it must end.

 

[lastflowers]

Halley's comet hit an asteroid and is heading towards earth and you have enough time to read 5 books or graphic novels. What do you read? I don't care if it's a first time read or something you've read a thousand times, it's all up to you*. Bonus points if you explain how you chose your last book to ever read.

*Each book in a series counts as one book, so LOTR's counts as three books.

For me it's:

1. Dune by Frank Herbert- Never read, heard it's good
2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry-Never read, heard it's really good
3. Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang- Have to read something Canadian before I go.
4. Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor- Reread since it's one of my fav books
5. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison- Final book is a reread of a recent classic and a good way to go. If you haven't, I suggest you go find yourself a copy.

So what're your five books?

You need to read "Texasville" by McMurtry instead. Lonesome Dove is good, but if the world is ending you should enjoy the humor

With Texasville, Larry McMurtry returns to the unforgettable Texas town and characters of one of his best-loved books, The Last Picture Show. This is a Texas-sized story brimming with home truths of the heart, and men and women we recognize, believe in, and care about deeply. Set in the post-oil-boom 1980s, Texasville brings us up to date with Duane, who's got an adoring dog, a sassy wife, a twelve-million-dollar debt, and a hot tub by the pool; Jacy, who's finished playing "Jungla" in Italian movies and who's returned to Thalia; and Sonny -- Duane's teenage rival for Jacy's affections -- who owns the car wash, the Kwik-Sackstore, and the video arcade.
One of Larry McMurtry's funniest and most touching contemporary novels.

edit: I had a feeling I wasn't referring to Duane's Depressed. It was Texasville!

 

[Big Nikus]

 

[Dot Matrix]

Blood Meridian and 4 books of collected essays analysing Blood Meridian

 

[fakefaker]

You need to read "Texasville" by McMurtry instead. Lonesome Dove is good, but if the world is ending you should enjoy the humor


edit: I had a feeling I wasn't referring to Duane's Depressed. It was Texasville!

Well, really, I picked Lonesome since it was so big and I'm such a slow reader; see then I could me meet a girl, settle down, have some kids, a dog and a cat, some chickens, start a hazelnut farm, own a moonshine side business, and watch them grandkids grow up. But laughing at the end of days works too.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

1. The Bible.
2. The Quran
3. The Torah
4. The Bhagavad Gita
5. The Sutras

Covering my bases.

There we go

 

[bjork]

1 - The First Five by Henry Rollins
2 - HG101: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures
3 - The Official Nintendo Player's Guide
4 - whatever the newest edition of Total Baseball is, I think 2004
5 - Azumanga Daioh omnibus

 

[old]

Not just for their size, but I enjoy epic tales.

1. Mahabharata - ancient Indian epic. 1.8 million words long.
2. Romance of the Three Kingdoms - 800,000 words long
3. Dream of the Red Chamber - another Chinese classic. 850k words.
4. The Once and Future King - TH White, always wanted to read more about Arthur.
5. The Winds of Winter - GRRM, cause it ain't never coming out.