Reader Friday: Best Book To Take Into Outer Space?

imageLet’s say that NASA is putting together a space probe to send to the nearest habitable planet. Which novel would you choose to introduce the human race to any alien beings found on that planet?image

13 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Best Book To Take Into Outer Space?

  1. My first thought was, for some reason, To Kill A Mockingbird. This story revolves around some of our most fundamental relationships–family, community, and friendship. ( It might also be good to give any alien race we’re about to meet a heads up that sometimes, we humans struggle to accept differences between our own kind. The aliens could then set their expectations accordingly for future interplanetary visits.)

    • I was thinking EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY, but then we’d likely only attract the lounge lizard aliens! ?

  2. Ulysses?

    Do we want to confuse the poor aliens?

    Give them The Maltese Falcon! Then they will truly understand the human race, how we are at war with our dark side, how frail is our nature, how temptation breeds corruption, and how we must find our way out of the darkness through commitment to principle–in this case, duty.

    Then give the aliens some popcorn and have them watch the movie.

    • I know, Ulysses would be the literary equivalent of a repelling-energy laser weapon. Not a way to catch ’em on page one!

  3. I’d have a difficult time choosing among James Michener’s The Source, the story of the periods in the pre-history and history of the land, and then, the State of Israel, the Jean M. Auel volume of the collection of The Earth Children series, or Bodie Thoene’s The Gathering Storm from her Zion Diaries Series.

    In fact, it seems a good thing to start one of those this weekend.

    • That’d put the aliens on notice in case they were thinking of trying an invasion, they’d have some gnarly earthlings to deal with, lol.

  4. I don’t know but the question reminds me of the ending of one of my favorite childhood movies, “The Time Machine.”

    At the end, George decided to go back to the future and help the Eloi. His friend Filby notices that George has taken three books with him and asks the housekeeper, “If you were going to rebuild future civilization, what three books would YOU take?”

    The books are never named (this part isn’t in the book in fact) but I always thought it was a great way to end the story.

  5. I couldn’t come up with any witty answers but I’ve enjoyed reading the responses. 😎

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