Fermi melted down, like, twice when I was growing
up. Something like that. This isn’t a scientific blog post so I’m not going to
do any fact-checking. But at any rate, there were times growing up that nuclear
radiation melted into the surrounding area, and at least once I packed a carpet
bag in case my parents said we needed to Go Now (and I put The Bible in, because that’s just who I am as a person, and my
favorite pair of socks and my favorite skirt, and considered myself Ready to
Flee the State if Necessary).
The point is, I have been indoctrinated into the
culture of Pack Your Bags and Run at a Moment’s Notice and Hope You Get Out
Alive (But You Probably Won’t). I was raised by a man who used to huddle under
desks in elementary school in case Russia bombed us, so this is not too much of
a surprise here.
In the off chance we do make it out of Michigan
alive, though, here is my list of the ten books I’d take with me into the
apocalypse, so when I’m not searching for unpolluted water/evading
zombies/trying to get the Internet working again/whatever apocalyptic scenario
you desire, I am well supplied with literature to start the world anew.
After all, consider the classic Beowulf, one of the only relics of Old English literature. Had the
monks at the monastery where Beowulf resided
known that only one text would survive, what would they have chosen, if given
the choice?
(“Probably the Bible,” one of my friends scoffed. I
didn’t tell her that I, too, had once packed my Bible to carry off into lands
unknown.)
---
1. In the
Kingdom of Ice, by Hampton Sides. Why? Because I cried when I finished, and
I carried the book with me for a couple hours afterward, the way one would a
baby.
2. Our Mutual
Friend, Charles Dickens. I wrote my first giant Master’s paper on this
stupid book. I read it three times in two years. (It’s an 800 page monster.) I
would sooner cut my arm off than part with my copy with all of its sticky notes
and little place markers.
3. The Dream
Thieves, Maggie Stiefvater. Her best work in the Raven Cycle. In a sense,
it would be like carrying Maggie Stiefvater with me into the apocalypse, and
there is no one I would rather have on my side during the end of the world than
Stiefvater. Plus, my copy is autographed.
4. Rebecca,
Daphne du Maurier. I would need a book about loss in my new life. And this book
is in my top-ten books that influenced my life, so.
5. Code Name
Verity, Elizabeth Wein. I mean, this book is perfection. I ought to write
scholarly essays on it. Someone ought to, anyway.
6. Chalice,
Robin McKinley. You can’t start a library from nothing without a Robin
McKinley. This one is my favorite. (Sorry, The
Blue Sword.)
7. My sad little Bantam edition of the collected
works of Oscar Wilde, for reasons obvious. I cannot live without Salome; I cannot live without the cheeky
picture of young Wilde gazing sultrily (is that a word) at the camera.
8. A Little
Princess, Frances Hogdson Burnett. I mean…this was my First Favorite Book.
Ever. Sentimental reasons.
9. Henry V,
Shakespeare. I feel like the future world will need a reminder that war is not
glorious. And also Shakespeare. Station
11 proved that we would need Shakespeare after the apocalypse.
10. The Year
of the Secret Assignments, Jacklyn Moriarty. This is another book that made
me cry when I finished. Moriarty wrote many sequels, but this one—this one is
the best. I believe it will be the best thing she ever writes, and that is high
praise, because each of her books is up there on my list of “best fiction ever
written.”
Honorable Mentions:
Undeniable,
Bill Nye
The
Blue Castle, L. M. Montgomery
Memoirs
of a Geisha, Arthur Goldman
The
Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
If you could only take ten books with you into a
Brave New World, which would you choose?
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