(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Want to make your own list? Clicking the image will take you to this week’s post. Happy listing!)
I love my books, and would do all manner of things to save them. If my apartment was on fire—and assuming Best Friend and my important paperwork were out—here’s ten books I’d grab.
1. My Sacred Harp song book – I have a 1907 song book that my grandmother gave me when I started getting into singing Sacred Harp. It’s in pretty bad shape, but it’s the first book I’d save.
2. My current journal – I have a thick blank book I’m using as a journal. It covers some of the best, hardest, and most important parts of my life.
3. Spook (Mary Roach) [Signed] – I love Mary Roach, and my signed copy of her second book is a great keepsake.
4. Eragon (Christopher Paolini) [Signed] – Not one of my favorite stories ever, but a signed copy is valuable.
5. Twilight (Stephanie Meyer) [Signed] – I got a signed copy from the Chicago Book Fair the year after the novel came out. It was a steal at $20.
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling) [Signed] – A British edition as well.
7. Graceling (Kristin Cashore) – One of my favorite books of 2011. I wouldn’t leave without it.
8. My favorite copy of Pride and Prejudice – A shabby little green paperback that leaves ink on your fingers as you read. Picked up from a shop in Prague, Czech Republic.
9. My Czech copy of Pride and Prejudice – Yes, I have a copy of Austen’s novel in Czech. No, I can’t read it.
10. The Wee Free Men: The Beginning (Terry Pratchett) – My favorite of the Discworld so far. I love Tiffany, she’s got chutzpah.
What books would you save if your house were on fire?
You sing too?! Yay! So please excuse my ignorance, but what is “sacred harp” music?
Been singing for 15+ years! 🙂 How about you? What voice part do you sing?
Sacred Harp is a pre-Civil War style of a capella singing. It’s hard to explain quickly, but I wrote this blog post that explains the basics and has some sample music.
It’s a love or hate type of music. Personally, I can’t get enough of it.
This was a great question!!
Ive tried keeping journals for so.many yrs,but I never follow through. Ink on paper makesme feel too exposed!
It was a great question. I thought it would be tough to answer, but the books came to mind quickly — guess I know which are most important to me. 🙂
I used to journal a lot more often, but it’s fizzled out, especially after college. But I still have all my old journals, and it’s interesting to look back.
Ink on paper makes you feel exposed, and yet you have a blog. Interesting. 😉
LOL. Good point. Well, I think the thing is books are pretty easy to talk about. When I write on paper, well, who knows what will happen?!
Yea, keeping a journal feels like a much more personal project, even though it probably really isn’t. 🙂
That’s awesome that you have so many signed editions. My shelves are definitely lacking signed books… Can’t wait to get to The Wee Free Men – I’m excitidly navigating the Discworld waters!!!
My mom got a signed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird recently — jealous! >.<
I haven't read much of the Discworld series, but I’ve read every bit of what I loved. I think Tiffany is my favorite character so far (with Death a close second). Get to Wee Free Men faster so we can gab about it!