Just out of curiosity, If you had room in your BOB for only one entertainment/comfort book, what would you take? (If your first choice is a religious book, pretend I asked you to choose *two* books, and one would be the religious book and the other one would be . . . ?)

I am debating between To Kill a Mockingbird, because I have read it many times and have happy memories of reading it with my mother; Pride and Prejudice because it makes me laugh; or one of the 'Mrs. Pollifax' books because I find them very comforting (in a hokie sort of way) and sometimes in a stressful situation, I ask myself, "what would Mrs. Pollifax do?"

Thanks,
GardenGrrl

I found an "Outdoorsmans Bible" recently. They had other different ones, such as a sports bible, etc but they basically have an appendix that matches the theme. The outdoorsmans had a section on outdoor survival so I basically got too books in one. I need to find a different bag for the bob now, with it in the bag its too thick to fit under the seat of the truck.

I think I'd choose "Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach (he also wrote "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"). "Illusions" isn't a 'religous' book, but reading it can take you on a journey of self discovery. I try to read it once every year or so, just to remind me that I can do anything I want, if I want it bad enough.

If that fails your 'religious' book test, then the second book would be "Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein. It has a 'survival' theme, but it's also an excellent story. It's dual use in your survival kit, entertaining distraction and motivational novel all in one.

Dennis (the Menace)

Wind, Sand and Stars- Antoine de Saint-Exupery'

Swiss Family Robinson, or the collected Arther Conan Doyle. Or maybe Lucifer's Hammer.

Great question, I thought about this one for a few minutes. I would take this volume of the complete essays of Michel de Montaigne. I keep it by my bedside and turn to it often. They are wildly brilliant, funny, insightful, and a sheer delight. It has been my favorite book for many years.

Just one?? I would probably still be trying to decide hours after whatever disaster was already upon us. Or I would just grab something that was trite but familiar and fun and go with that.

Very easy to answer! Jules Verne's Mysterious Island. This is a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and is my all time favorite book. I must have read that 20 times so far. It has been made into a few movies and TV series but never close to the book. It is purely a survival story from the 1880's, written in the 1880's and good clean entertainment. I highly recommend this to anyone. CHeers!

As for me, I would escape to the world of the "Hobbit."

Choosing one... Evil quiestion. Can I cheat and take the Lord of the Rings Trilogy? Even so - there are so many other books that are equally compelling. THe Nick Adams Stories would be good too.

I guess I will HAVE TO read that one again..... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I did, but a long time ago, and it was more for a school lecture IIRC... so I did not find it interesting....

One book ??? only one ???
aaaarrgghhh........
Not possible.....
How could I choose one book from my library ? I have about 1000 books (mainly novels) and over 1000 "bandes dessinées" (I guess "comics" is the most appropriate translation...)....
Reading some answers in that thread compels me to reread some great authors I read during my school/college days.... but to read them now only for pleasure... (Montaigne's Gargantua being one of these)...

Gone to Texas - it's the book that The Outlaw Josey Wales is based on. If we ever get to the point of Farenheit 451, that will be the book I have memorized ;-)

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe would be a close second.

Regards, Vince

Depends on how long I think I'm going to be gone, either LOTR (it's actually not 3 books anyway right, that's just how the publisher split it up) or The Princess Bride. My wife and I read that to each other on road trips, it just always makes me laugh.... True love, high adventure... yada yada

I'd have to go with "Alas, Babylon", though "Kon-Tiki" is way up there, too.

-Blast

Good literature subjected to the school lecturn is like a filet mignon handed to a probationary employee at Mc Donalds In Alaska I found myself being shaken to death in an old HH 52 helicopter caught in a mountain storm. I swear I heard a french accent reciting his passage about the Andean storm.

I never read the book;
But the movie is one of my favorite, along with 'A fish called Wanda'... I must have seen those two more than a dozen times each ..... <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I know everyone always says the book is better than the movie... blah blah blah, but seriously, the book is better than the movie. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I have 2 copies of the book, one I lend out because I recommend it to so many people and one I keep around for when I want to read it.

After my bible, the second book might be ``Democracy in America'', by de Tocqueville. I don't know if it's good reading or not, but I've been wanting to read it for a long time now, and never quite making time to actually do it. By all accounts there's a lot in there to think about, and that would take my mind off my troubles. That sounds comforting. Whittling down my reading list by one sounds like a comforting thought, too.

Le Miserables is another possibility. It might be a bit less educational, but it's certainly a pretty good story, and reading about France during the revolution would make being lost in the woods seem pretty attractive.

One problem with either of those choices is that you couldn't be rescued for weeks and weeks, until you'd finished the book. You might starve while reading, because you couldn't pack much food and that huge book, too.

If you just want light (and easy to carry) escapist reading, maybe anything by G.A. Henty? Good, accurate historical fiction, and short enough to read in a few days. Don't bother taking two, since he had one plot. It's a good plot, though.

Nels

"Rascal" by Sterling North. Takes me back to my childhood days when my Mother gave me this book while I was laid up after a bout of spinal menegitis. It was and still is my favorive recreational reading book and although I wasn't even thought about in 1918, it seemed like a much simpler and less stressful life.

Such a good campfire question!

The litigious part of me wants to say that the one book limit should really be a size and weight limit (no, I’m not a lawyer). That way, those of us who like short books aren’t handicapped. In fact, we can choose two or three good books to that one huge novel that someone else recommends (a big book, someone once said, is a big misfortune).

But that’s a quibble. The important criterion ought to run along these lines:
“An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. There is hope for a man who has never read Malory or Boswell or Tristam Shandy or Shakespeare’s sonnets: but what can you do with a man who says he ‘has read’ them, meaning he has read them once, and thinks that this settles the matter? …If you find that the reader of popular romance—however uneducated a reader, however bad the romances—goes back to his old favorites again and again, then you have pretty good evidence that they are to him a sort of poetry. The re-reader is looking not for actual surprises (which come only once) but for a certain surprisingness.”

So, I guess I’m saying you should take along whatever book you have read many times and continue to enjoy. Bugging out is no doubt an unhappy experience filled with all kinds of novelties, mostly undesirable. That being the case, the B.O.B. book should be an old friend.

As for me, I like children’s stories and make no apology. When I go on business travel (something I truly can’t stand, especially the airport part), I take along some children’s books I have read over and over. My favorite is the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Other old classics I’ve recently re-read include My Side of the Mountain, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, some short stories by Oscar Wilde (The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince), King of the Golden River, The Golden Key, and so on.

I can’t argue with the man who recommended Lord of the Rings, though. The British didn’t vote that the best book of the 20th century for nothing.

Tricky. I read quite a lot, and if I want to re-read something I don't wait for an emergency. So I'd probably hope to pick something I've not read yet, more or less at random. Generally when I go away I try to download a dozen or more novels to my phone - but that depends on being able to recharge the battery.

If I had to pick something it would probably be by Neal Stephenson, such as Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, or Cryptonomicon.

Oh!, -the Coffee Table book "Spectacular Australia"! (Available at many Quality Bookstores). Though it would otherwise be obviously too Big and Bulky! Just at least leaf thru it! Taking a few seconds or so at each Page Spreadout! The obvious Spectacularity thats evident in nearly every Photo, -Self Evidently Speaks Volumes!!! Its a Real Standout! And one of my personally Most Beloved of Books! I can only Highly Recommend it!!! (But for your coffee table or Den!, -*Not* an actual Outdoors Trip or Occassion!).

What a Place we have on this Earth!, -known as Australia!!! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]GardenGrrl[/email]

Big fan of Clive Cussler and his Dirk Pitt adventures (latest adaptation movie Sahara). For some reason I've always been attracted to prison literature such as Jimmy Learner's "You got nothing comming"... Until today when we get medical calls in prison I'm like the first one to go. I acctually buff these jobs. I'm also big on WW2 history and anything that has to do with concentration camps.

Because of this forum I read my share of survival novels such as Long Walk by Ravicz and many others.

Every now and than I will pick up stuff by Forsyth or Higgins but I've been knows to love Verne for his naivette, Vonegut for his humor, Bukowski for drinking abilities and Kosinski for his twisted fantasies.

Also made a point to go thru one classic a month.

Bukowski, now there's a writer. The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills is one of my favorites. Also one of the most captivating titles of any book I've ever read. But Hemingway is still hard to beat.

"Time Enogh for Love" by Robert Heinlein

I guess someone has to stand up for Tom Clancy...Red Storm Rising...

I liked "Cardinal of the Kremlin". Star Wars funding was cut before I got my degree, so it's as close as I'll probably ever get to that stuff. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Another good one.

Is it just me, or does ole Tom seem to have lost his touch? His last couple of books just didn't grab my interest they way they used to...

I would have to go with "Watcher in the Shadows" by Geoffery Household. The grand-daddy of all chase novels, this book takes you on a trip through the English countryside in the early '50s. A mild-mannered ex-Secret Service agent is wrongly targeted and stalked by a concentration camp survivor who blames him for war crimes.

Written in a more refined time, by a true gentleman, this book may only appeal to those of a certain age, which is a pity.

I think what you find with his books these days is that he lends his name to the cover in large print, but the key writer is actually someone else.
I always enjoy books by Ken Follet, Key to Rebecca, Eye of the Needle, Night Over Water, etc. There was a great one out years ago that I believe was called Imperial 109. About a flying boat going around the world. Lots of intrigue. Would love to find another copy.

OK, if I cann't select one book, I can pinpoint some authors....
My favorite US authors : Asimov, Franck Herbert, Heinlein, John Sandford, Tony Hillermann...

I love A Fish Called Wanda too! As with American History X and The Motorcycle Diaries.

Favourite books: any by McNab although I also regard Bravo Two Zero as fiction.
Chickenhawk - about a US Huey pilot in Vietnam
The Joker - story about British SF soldier during the 1960s
The Operators - written about the 14 intelligence Coy in 1980s Northen Ireland

Chickenhawk : I read it two weeks ago !
And today I finished Lucifer's hammer.....

What did you think of it?

dreadful ....

My EDC PSK won't be enough to face such a disaster !!!
nor my 72hours kit !! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

lol. Yeah pretty horrific

Still I would do it too. (Signing up to become a pilot during war - best job in the world!)

ohhh.. I was speaking of Lucifer's Hammer.

OTOH, Chickenhawk too is "intersting" reading.
My only experience as a "pilot" was as a powered hangglider's pilot.
It's difficult enough to STAY in the air, without anybody trying to shoot you down.... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Got to toss in another vote for Clancy. Debt of Honor and Without Remorse, especially. i have read some of Jack B. Du Brul's books, also. His books are kind of like Clive Cussler's

Yeah. I remember grabbing 'em as soon as they came out. After the last few... eh.

What I liked was the plot interwoven with technical stuff. It was almost poetry in some cases (yes, I'm such a nerd).

Back on topic, more or less, I think I'd want something inspirational... Heinlein's "Space Cadet" for example. Although it's unlikely there would be smart seals with advanced chemistry degrees available to help me repair my airplane, I do think it'd help me get in the right frame of mind for survival. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I agree with several choices....Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy....but personally I think my choice would be....The Phantom of the Opera. (Original Novel)