"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...