It's the end of time what books will you grab?

Okay, I'm going to try and start up a post here and since this is The Weird Tradition group, I'll try and keep it a bit weird. Everyone knows about the, if you were stuck on a desert island and could only take one book contemplation, but as I mentioned earlier since this post is about things Cthulhu:

If the world was coming to a catastrophic ending and you only had enough time to grab one book of fiction, one book of non-fiction and one research book, because some strange blood sucking alien was chasing you, before you jumped into the space ship you had been building in the basement and escape to a distant planet where you would be the only person, what books would you take?

My selections, to kick this discussion would be: Non-fiction: History of the World by J.M. Roberts since I’d probably be the last person at least I could remember what had been. Research: The dictionary, as I would finally have the time to learn the definition of every word in my native language. Fiction: The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe is certainly one of the all time horror greats producing works worth re-reading. I would have chosen H.P. Lovecraft, but as far as I know there isn't one book that collects all his material.

Can't wait to see everyone else's replies!

Charles

That is a very good question. I'm afraid I am too indecisive to narrow the field down like that. But I wanted to ask: Depending on why the world was ending, would the Necronomicon count as a research book?

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, an anthology of Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, Portrait of a Lady fiction, combination Thesaurus/Dictionary, pocket size

I would take a copy of HP Lovecraft: The Fiction and Edgar Allen Poe: Fiction and Poetry both put out by Barnes & Noble. A lot of good stuff packed into those two books.

> 2: And, if so, which edition (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BarkingMatt&tag=Necronomicon)?

My three to grab would be - Fiction: The Dunwich Horror collection; Non-fiction: I am Providence and for research: new york lovecraft. If they're going to be the last things I read, it might as well be by my favourite writer.

My three to grab would be - Fiction: The Dunwich Horror collection; Non-fiction: I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft and for research: The Lovecraft Letters Volume 2: Letters from New York. If they're going to be the last things I read, it might as well be by my favourite writer.

If it's really the end of time survival in corporeal form will be moot, so I would pick The Physics of Immortality,
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and
The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I will leave an exercise to the reader as to which are fiction and which are non-fiction.

Fiction- The Horror in the Museum, H P Lovecraft anthology, Arkham House hardback.
Non Fiction- Vienna 1900 and the Heroes of Modernism
I love the amazing buildings, but my book on Barcelona was a very close second.
Research Book- History of Western Science by John Gribben.

I'm grabbing my Hopkins, my Housman, my Calvin & Hobbes - and R. Murray Gilchrist's STONE DRAGON AND OTHER TRAGIC ROMANCES

Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
The Holy Bible
The Outline of History - H.G. Wells

As with #8, I leave which is which up to you. :)

I'll bring G.R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons, since it's taking me until the end of time to finish it anyway! And some Leiber.

fiction - Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things, since being on the run and all it would probably be easier to read shorter fiction.

Nonfiction - Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Not only do I love the poetry, but the copy I have was given to my grandfather for his birthday by my grandmother in 1937 and has a message from her to him inside the front cover.

Reference - probably How To Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier and Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara. Both could come in handy.

I think I might make a "soundtrack to the end of the world" playlist for my iPod. Of course it'll start with R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It."

I've added a new collection to my library: "books to take along in the event of a sci-fi apocalypse." Check it out!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?collection=159761

These picks are relative to the tone of this group.

Fiction: Rendezvous in Averoigne
Non-fiction: The Book of Memory
Research book: Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism

If its the end of time, I'm not sure I'd take ANY weird fiction with me. I've been watching the Walking Dead lately, and if I was in that situation, the LAST thing I'd want to read would be horror/weird fiction. I'd be living it, so I'd want to use reading to get AWAY from it.

Forget A Dance With Dragons - as fantastic as the earlier volumes were, I think G.R.R. let this get too big while waiting too long. For 1000 + page book, I'd rather spend my time on Neal Stephenson's Reamde. Which I am.

End of time - Mervyn Peake's The Gormenghast Trilogy. And some Leiber.