If you could only save one Book which would it be?

I am surprised nobody has yet mentioned LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD by Flora Thompson. Anyone who enjoys Laurie Lee and Cider with Rosie would enjoy this. So nostalgic of unspoiled England.

Probably The Diary of Anne Frank. My copy is very well worn, it’s a Pan paperback from 1958. Read to us at school and I saved up pocket money and bought it. 3/6p I think. It’s very fragile now, with pages yellowed and well worn. It’s a sad reminder of the horrors of war, and I was devastated when I discovered how it ended. I was only 12 at the time and knew nothing about the suffering of the Jewish population. We visited Anne Franks house in Amsterdam about 30 years ago. We went early in the morning as soon as it opened and consequently were the first visitors, and I was so moved by the atmosphere, it was as if they had all just left. The view from Anne’s bedroom was exactly as she described, with the chestnut tree and the clock tower. A very emotional visit and a book which I would not want to lose, especially in a fire.

"The Vizard Mask" by Diana Norman. I've read it three times and it still grips me , and there are enough themes in it to fill three books. Can't recommend it highly enough!

Tudorrose You reminded me - my mother reading "The Egg and I" during a very unhappy period of her life, and laughing till the tears ran down her cheeks! The book got lost, unfortunately.

My hardback copy of Anne of Green Gables which my mother received as a school prize in 1939. I loved it and read it many times.

Not one, but all the books with Detective Harry Bosch as the main character by Michael Connolly.

clematisa Shadow lands ... my husband cried so much that he refused to ever watch it again .

"nonnie" I have the book about Anthony Nolan. I bought it 2nd hand over thirty years ago.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Whenever life becomes a bit overwhelming, I re-read this book. Flora the"heroine" brings order to everyone's life and then to mine. Also there are some wonderful phrases such as " I mun cletter the dishes" ( I have to wash the dishes) which have become part of our vocabulary.

Does a photo album count as a book?

‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame if I was choosing as a child

and

‘Cross-stitch’ by Diana Gabaldon at an Adult.

Gone with the Wind

humpty Thank you.

Got to be poetry I afraid but I genuinely cannot decide between three: the complete works of Rudyard Kipling (which travels everywhere with me), The Golden Bower or Woodbine Willie by Studdert-Kennedy. Burns is up there too. I am such a verse klutz that I carry poetry books in my backpack even when I am going on the bus. Currently reading Carol Duffy’s The World’s Wife for about the hundredth time.

Ok final choice, and I will just make it the one,

The Shropshire Lad.

Eloethan just started this thread and was delighted that you loved Black Like Me, too; it's one of a handful of books that I really, really wanted to keep a copy of, even if lack of space means I have to lose all the (hundreds!) of others; and I haven't found many people who have read it.

I always enjoy your threads, and feel that we are of a like mind and would have been friends in RL, and this is another indicator

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, read it when I was about 6 or 7 and then "found it again!" when I started teaching in 1975 - and since have loved it all my life! And now I'm retired... have read other books and films about C.S. Lewis ... what an amazing writer... he spent time and wrote back to all the young "writers" who wrote any letters to him. I also loved his book of "letters" which I still have ... And can anyone watch the film Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins and not shed at least 1 tear? www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLKS0XGRYi8

The series of Outlander books love them. I’ve read them several times each!!!

Inspired by my late grandfather who once read the Bible from cover to cover, several years ago I decided to do this. Every day I try to read a chapter from the Old Testament, one from the Gospels and one from the rest of the New Testament. I have finished my third reading of the OT and am part-way through my third of the Apocrypha. Because the NT is shorter I've read that several times more.
As for books - I'd choose Diary of a Nobody or Wind in the Willows or The History of Mr Polly or a PG Wodehouse. They always cheer me up.

I'm with chrissyh - I love Thomas Hardy, so evocative & stirring. I'd take The Return of the Native. I've always loved Graham Greene's Brighton Rock too - totally different but conjures up the seedy undercurrent of Brighton as it was and the seething menace that was Pinkie Brown. Unfortunately, it's relatively short so I'd have to stick with Hardy!

The Bible. I have read it all the way through too. I generally read some every day.

Second choice: a large poetry anthology.

(I also love Jane Austen and Margaret Forster.)

BBbevan Margaret Forster is my favourite writer (so sad she is no longer with us).

Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield. I could re-read it 100 times and still love it.

Definitely The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.I have had my copy for over 20 years and pick it up most months to compare nature and weather then and now.

Homo Deus by Yuval Harari.
To keep me thinking.

Not cross titch but Cross Stitch!