If you had to throw away all books but could keep the one you like most?

I would like your suggestion, looking at your own personal library: if you were forced to throw away ALL your books, but were allowed to keep one, which would it be? I would like to know so I can put it on my TBR list for this year. It must be available to buy in English or Dutch.
I prefer books that are available in hardcover with dustjacket, BUT for this challenge it can be any kind of book, EXCLUDING e-books. I want to buy it and hold it in my hand while reading.

I am Hans from the Netherlands, read a lot, but exclude occult/dark stuff or books with a lot of curse words/faul language. For the rest, all genres are welcome. Ok, let's go, I m waiting eagerly for your suggestions!

Cue inner screaming! One book... ONE BOOK? Nooooooo!

Honestly, I could maybe (MAYBE) cut it down to one series, or one author, but one book? Yikes!!!!!

That said, I will suggest one of my favourite books, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. "A tale of ancient China that never was" that I have loved since I first read it, decades ago. Out of print but should be readily available on the used market.

I suspect you'll get many well-known books this way. One Hundred Years of Solitude for me. Monumental novel that is infinitely rereadable. From books I read relatively recently, the one that stands out as something I'd recommend widely Mother Night

There are several that I love that I would want to keep, but if I could ONLY have one, it would likely be David Copperfield. It's nice and long, and Dickens captures many moods from comic to tragic in that one novel.

So difficult a decision, even if only hypothetical.

For me, Emma by Jane Austen, but I’d be sorely tempted by Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.

If I took the question too literally, it'd be no help to you at all. I'd start looking at the book's actual worth (rare copy?) or sentimental value (who gave it to me?), or which am I most likely to appreciate reading again (something complicated/long?) etc. etc.

Strictly by my favourites, Bridge of Birds is not a bad choice. I've nearly all the others mentioned too, but they wouldn't be contenders. I might end up with Islandia, Possession and Moby Dick and then pick one of those three at random. You'll have to rule out Islandia because it's tough to get now, the other two are easy.

That's easy. The Master and his Emissary. My world has not been the same since I read it.

Maybe The Count of Monte Cristo since it's got such breadth of skullduggery and humor.

>2 tardis: Ha, yeah, but by asking such a question, I think many will re-discover how much they love reading that ONE special book! And beside that, it gives me a list to go shopping the coming weekend for TBR, at Waterstones in Amsterdam, or the American Book Shop opposite. And there is the great "Bookexchange" with hundreds of second hand fantasy :D will be fun to find your book! Thanks for the suggestion!

>3 SandraArdnas: oh, oh, you're the first one refusing to pick one haha
So I will go and put Gabriel Garcia's book on my TBR and buy list for this weekend!
Thanks for the suggestion

>4 tealadytoo: yeap, only one. And you know, ofcourse I expected classics in the suggestions, but to my shame I have seen movies and tv movies David Copperfield, but never actually read the book!
So that one is now definately going on my TBR/buy list!

Thanks

>5 susanbooks: yeap, I see, notice, even when only hypothetical you still can't choose :-)

So I will ignore the second suggestion cause Emma was the first one that obviously came to your mind.
As is in the case of David Copperfield, I have ofcourse seen Emma as tv series but shamefully never read the novel. It's going to be on my shopping list for this weekend for sure! Thanks

>6 Cecrow: Wow, 1014 pages for Islandia? I actually hate many books these days for being that thick of a volume. When I was much younger, great books were often written on only 200-300 pages....
Since Bridge of Birds was the first suggestion in this thread I will go for Possession.

thanks for the suggestion(s)

>7 wester: Never saw that one coming! A short answer, to the point with a book that already makes me want to go to the bookshop now (8 pm, all bookstores close at 6).
I m definately going to look for it this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion!

>8 Bookmarque: Anyone saying "maybe" obviously can't make a choice standing in front of the bookshelves, even under the treath of beheading during the French revolution I think you would ask for your persecuters to give you more time to choose hahah
But I ll take the tip serious and go shopping for it this weekend. thanks

Maybe is enough for theoretical musings on the internet, don't you think? You can't go wrong with it though. It's a huge book, but great. I love Dumas and this one started it for me. You can get an unabridged ebook for nothing at Project Gutenberg, or any number of printed and bound volumes, some for pretty short money. I'm not an expert in translations, but I believe there is a newish one that could be interesting for comparison for folks who have experience with the story.

>16 Bookmarque: The Count of Monte Cristo is a great book. Definitely my favorite Dumas story. I just finished Tom Reiss' The Black Count, a biography of Dumas' father, and was interested to learn that he worked some of his soldier father's experiences as a POW into Dante's story.

>10 annus_sanctus: I added the other since Marquez is possibly read already :)

>15 annus_sanctus:, since you are concerned about longer reads, don't like that discourage you from Monte Cristo. I read an abridged version (about 600 pages, even then) and still felt it was a great story. Can't compare with the longer to see what I missed, but it didn't feel like anything was.

I’m usually immune to anxiety. But this topic title is triggering me.

>20 2wonderY: only one medicine: ignore it completely and tell yourself over and over again in front of the mirror "I do not have to choose one book, I can keep them all" haha

tardis (#2)

I came here to say Bridge of Birds too. Just reread it a few months ago.

I’ve been thinking about this far too much & I think I want to change mine to Middlemarch. George Eliot will give me enough to think about in there to last a good while.

ETA: concision

>22 lorax: I m now on a huge search to find the book, got a tip that it is available in a second hand english bookshop in Amsterdam.... hope so

>23 susanbooks: haha, sorry to make you get so confused, but I think it is quite fun to find out for ourselves that there are books we hardly can part off, while others we don't actually really concider. but the tips give me a possibility to make a nice ToBuyList and ToBeRead list

I love the idea of your list, of looking for and finding the most precious books & then, I don’t know, it gets hazy after that, something about holing up with books for life.