Leading on from the "What's Your Fahrenheit 451" thread, if you had a house fire, or flood, and could only save ONE of your books, which one would you grab?
Mine would be "On the Beach" (well right now it would lol)

I have a few autographed books that would be irreplaceable, but the one I'd have to save would be my book of Civil War Illustrations by Frank Leslie, dated 1895.

I've got a signed Banjo Paterson book from 1907 that I would probably grab before ANYTHING else.

Probably my Stephn King Omnibus which contains The Shining, Carrie, and 'Salem's Lot.

I'd probably save the one I'm reading at the time because I'd want to know how it ended.

I got a couple of signed books I'd go for but I guess if it was just one it would be a copy of Where the Wild Things Are given to me by somebody special. Plus its a cool book.

First Edition of "In Cold Blood".

Too many to choose from, but I think I would do what the old woman did in "Farenheit 451" and perish with all of them.

Interesting thread. Here in Western Australia, it is leading up to bushfire season, and we are being told that in the event of a fire,if we decide to go, we should have a box packed of the "irreplaceables" - the books, photos, valuables etc.
So far, mine has my back up computer disk of the book I'm writing, my great great great grandmother's cameo brooch (came to WA in 1830 with her);some pieces of embroidery done by my mum and grandmother when they were young, a box of photos, an album I put together of things relating to my late husband, and now I'm trying to choose the books !
Most of my large collection would be replaceable, but it would take a long time and a lot of money to do it !

I would save the book that I'm writing. It is my most valuable material object.

LOL Rob3!

It would probably be a leather-bound edition of Jane Eyre that I've had for years -- it's an old friend

I'd have to save my copy of Van Loon's Lives. It's an autographed authors copy and cost me a pretty penny.

the book i got from my sister for my 13th birthday...it's "teenage drama queen"! it's not work of art, but it has special place in my heart-first book I've read in english!

I did save the Feluda novels as hey look quite ancient and are fun to read. 2 volumes and not so heavy too!

"Maz and the 1960 Bucs"

A Christmas gift from my mother several years ago,personally autographed to me by the author, and later signed by one of the players.It was also one of the very few items to survive a fire where I lost nearly everything.

Is it easy for you to buy books in English reckless? Or do they tend to just be textbooks or school reading type books?

The ones that have my published articles in them (not that many ). But most of the books I could get again. After people, I would rescue my cats and my back up hard drives. And then some vinyl records I couldn't replace easily.

Tezz1551, I would go crazy trying to do what you're doing. How scary. I'd be trying to fit my whole apartment into the car. I've even had dreams of trying to do this (LOL).

I sure hope you don't ever need to flee and I wish you well.

Y

Gosh, what a terribly difficult question!

I have too many books to choose from. Those of you who know me know that I have thousands of books, and bookcases in every room of my house (even the loo has a magazine rack).

I could take one of my favourite books - one of my Rumpoles, or "To Kill A MockingBird", but they are replaceable.

My autographed books would be hard to replace - I have autographed books from Alexander McCall Smith, Jeffery Deaver, Ruth Rendell, Kathy Reichs, Gabrielle Lord and Bryce Courtney, to name but a few. It would be a toss-up between Kathy Reichs and Bryce Courtney.

Then there are the books I rebound in my bookbinding class - many of which are from my childhood (Anne of Green Gables, Little Women etc).

It definitely wouldn't be any of the books I've written. They are textbooks and easily replaceable.

What about the book I use most often - my Macquaries Dictionary. I won it from the West Australian newspaper for solving a cryptic crossword puzzle - but that could be replaced.

I'm not sure what my most valuable book is - possibly my book of the complete poems of Charles Dickens (from 1885). That certainly beats the others, hands down, when it comes to not being able to be replaced.

Well, if I could only grab one, I guess it would have to be my dictionary - not the Macquaries dictionary, the one that is really a booksafe. It looks like a book, sits on the bookshelf, but really contains my jewellery ).

If I had to choose a single book, I would choose my Collectors Edition of Beedle the Bard, what Amazon released last year. It's "only a Children's book" but it's a lovely made book - the book is inside a book, if you know what I mean Through the flames I would also grab as many audio CDs and tapes as I could

In reality, I'd let every on of my 4,000+ burn, in an emergency there's other stuff that's more important.

Theoretically...my copy of John Donne's poetry. It's old and tatty, but it was given to me by someone special and has a lot of memories attached to it.

I have a shelf with books and journals in which I've published. I'd try to scoop that up.

Mine has now changed as I actually managed to get my hands on a signed Heinlein Second to that would be a Storm Constantine limited edition.

An update for me - during a reccent bout of the flu, I catalogued all my books - well over 2000, and the disk its on is now in the "save" box .. so, theoretically, I could recreate my library - however, I would still save the book of Henry Lawson's poetry Dad gave me when my first child was born, as nothing can replace the memories that has.
The cows won't fit in the car, nor will the sheep, so they will have to stay, and the dogs can go in the ute - they like that way better than the car. Let's just hope we are both home !

For me it would be the Anne Tyler Trilogy my husband bought years ago. The lengthy inscription in the front is worth as much as the book is to me.
Another one I'd want to save would The Artist In America -a coffee table book of fine art given to me by my older brother Gary when I was about nine. Not only is it beautiful, inspiring me over the years...but it said something about how he felt about me. I wasn't just a nine year old who was always in the way, but a real person, with distinct tastes and dreams. I've tried to remember his image of me through my whole life, through some troubled times.

Kate, after reading what you wrote, I would save those for you. That's beautiful. I still haven't been able to narrow my own down yet - this is taking way too much thinking on my part. Could you imagine if I actually had to do a last minute save?