What's Unique About Your Library ? - Part 2 - In the event of a fire (TW),what is/are the book(s) th

Share your thoughts.

In the event of a fire or any other natural disaster or calamity ( T W ), what is/are the book(s) that you will save ?

NOTE: TW: (Touch Wood, , tap 1,2,3 on a wooden table )

Not sure. There are so many, but probably the books my guru gave me that are annotated by him would be top of the list. Most everything else can be replaced. However, the collection I have at the moment is the work of almost a decade and a half, including a lot of stumble-upon finds and stuff that I'm not sure is even replaceable, or if it is, certainly wouldn't be easy.

I don't know....So many to choose from. I probably say Harry Potter 1-7, Complete Works of Shakespeare and My tattered copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. These book hold memories in them and it wouldn't be the same if I replaced them.

while I would hate to lose any of my library to such a tragedy, I would have to say I'd save my TBR pile first, starting with my current read, whatever it is at the time, all my books can be replaced but I don't know which ones in my TBR pile that should be!

I don't know. My copy of the Midnight Raymond Chandler comes to mind.

If I actually had the luxury to save books when my house is on fire (I mean, children, pets, scrapbooks and purse/money comes to mind first), and I had the presence of mind to think, I would grab my collection of books by Ernie Pyle. Some of them were hard to find and expensive, and I love each one of them.

>6 MrsLee:
Ernie Pyle used to write for our local paper.

can't even fathom such a horrendous scenario of losing books blasphemy . I love all of them but the one I love the most are from first childhood.

fleela - Do you know if they've ever published a collection of his articles? I know I don't have all of his work yet, but I have enough to get the tone of the man and I admire him so much. Have you read him?

I haven't read any of his stuff (I know, I'm a bad Hoosier) and I don't know if they've published anything but I'll check on it.

If I had the opportunity to save books, I'd probably save the ones that were not just most loved, but also hardest to replace. I love Harry Potter, but I could easily buy replacements. Replacing my hardcover Arthur Ransomes would be harder and more expensive. Also my gardening books would be high priority.

The only book I have that couldn't be replaced is The Deadeyes: The Story of the 96th Infantry Division.
My uncle was in this division during WWII, and gave me this book. I never get tired of hearing his stories about it, especially the one that he received a Bronze Star for. Of course, he downplays it, stating they were handing them out like candy. But I know better.

I would save the Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti books. They are the most rare and valuable books I have.

Oh, and Gormenghast, Catch-22, The Good Soldier Svejk, The Cornish Trilogy, The Bridge, The Restoration Game, The Bridge over the Drina, Brasyl, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, How to Lie with Statistics, Systemantics, and Snow Crash.

Except for a few exceptions, mostly everything in my library can be replaced. Though it would hurt a lot to lose everything.

I'd probably try to save my leather-bound Lord of the Rings and my signed copies, Eragon, The Other Boelyn Girl, and Storm Front.

I'd also want to grab some of my Fruits Basket books from my manga collection.

I don't think I have any books that are both irreplaceable and have so much sentimental meaning that I'd think to grab them before an impending disaster. Maybe my dad's Navy cruise books and my anniversary edition of Gone With the Wind.

I have some turn-of-the-last-century novels that belonged to my grandmothers. A couple are signed on the flyleaf by my great-grandmother. I have some childhood books that belonged to my father - who just passed away at the age of 83.

I'm like MerryMary, I have books from my great-grandparents, grandparents, and my parents all who are gone now, all the books have notations and/or signatures in them, all very special, all irreplaceable, obviously. I'd grab those first. I also have a very large, very heavy family bible, with our family tree written in it, dating back to 1846, that would be heartbreaking to lose too.

I have a couple of books that are in the "irreplaceable" slot. They just wouldn't come up for sale again.

In reality, though? I'd probably panic and grab whichever ones were closest. I do have a box of "stuff to grab in an emergency" - it's old memories and things that I'd love to rescue in an emergency.

Add my mom's second edition box set of LotR, and my handful of Folio Society books to my list.

My kid's scrapbooks and my scriptures. I'd be sad if I lost other stuff, but those are really the only ones that would break my heart if I lost them.

My own-produced photobooks would be top of the pile (lots of memories in there), followed by Tigana (because that's never really far from my reach), my David Lindsay collection, my huge Mythology dictionary, my Arthur Conan Doyle short stories book, and my Chronicles of Prydain books. All things that are either irreplaceable, were particularly hard to track down at the time, or hold a deep personal importance to me.

Things like Tolkien & Pratchett could be retrieved relatively easily again (assuming that the insurance pays out big on this unexpected disaster?)

I could probably find the edition of LotR I have. However, it is my mom's set, so there's definite sentimental value to it. The copy of Chronicles of Narnia that I just about read to pieces as a kid has already disappeared and needs to be replaced, so I'm not about to lose both.

Any of the books I received from my mother; many of them were given to her and her sisters for birthdays and Christmases in the second decade of the last century (and are so inscribed). I have a signed Edward Gorey I'd like to rescue, too. My photo albums of course.

I have had this scenario, in a sense: my home was flooded in 2006 and I lost the bottom shelf of every bookcase, plus boxes that were on the floor. The problem was that when I was told to evacuate, I didn't take it seriously so didn't move anything. It didn't occur to me that the river across the street and down quite a steep bank would end up in my living room.

I'd probably go for three things:
- The box of children's books in the attic, because some of them are quite old (my mother's) and probably very hard/impossible to be replaced.
- My Kindle, quite expensive and holds several books.
- Some of the books I got for university, because they're freakishly expensive.

Almost everything else can easily be replaced, I don't have any valuable first editions or signed books. It's not that I don't love many of my books, but that mostly concerns the content of the book, not the physical book itself.

"It's not that I don't love many of my books, but that mostly concerns the content of the book, not the physical book itself."

Exactly. Well said!

I have a few little yellow shoes - I have never ever seen it online or anywhere else and it was inherited from my grandmother, as was the wild plants where to find them and how to know them which has an inscription to my great grandmother in 1889 inside.
I also have A world of difference by Edmund Cooper, that I paid $240/£140 for, I do not think I could ever pay that much for a book again - second most I paid was £80 for and Arkham house first of Other Dimensions. And finally the Once more with Footnotes I bought it new at retail price of $25 but it goes for a few hundred pounds now, it would be difficult to replace that.

You have a rare collection of books. The books are worth much more at present, re-assess with a rare book dealer , and there is a website for it.

At the top of the list is the super ancient, brown with age, covers frayed, tiny French dictionary that belonged to my Dad. It has a very high sentimental value for me.

All others can be replaced more or less easily. Provided there are insurance payments, of course, as Tane said. ;)

I only have one signed book, by a Spanish philologist who jokingly stamped his signature on it after I bought it at a translator's conference. I think I could probably get his signature on a new copy...

#19
Historic LOL indeed!

For me it would probably be the books that I've personally put the most work into, so The Riverside Chaucer and my gorgeous hardback Klaeber Beowulf which I used to write both my undergraduate dissertations. I could get new copies of those books, but I could never get back the annotations and years of work that I've added.

I don't really own any books that are valuable in a money sense. So I would save books I have inherited with inscriptions in them and my set of Little House on... books, because of memories of my mom reading them for me before bed