Say you're standing in a library, a very large one.  You know that there's one copy of every work ever written by human hands (not just books in the sense we're familiar with.  But every medium by which information was meant to be transferred from one person to another, so scrolls, electronic formats, etc).  This is just works that have already been written.  Those that are going to be written in the future, but haven't yet, are not present.

You're told you can select and keep any one item.  What would you pick?

A toss up between;

The very first written work of fiction/epic/whatever that culture had.

And;

A catalogue that was kept for the books/scrolls/works in the Library of Alexandria.

Clearly, if it ever existed, a microfilm copy of an English transcription of the Akashic Record. <.<

*run away!*

Brilliant idea Andre!
Now take this money and leave the country before storm comes to rip you to pieces
I think I would take something very old in diary form, to get an insight of what it was like in that time period. I wouldn't take anything particularly special.
This question reminded me of an episode of Avatar...

Lunar (08:40pm Fri, May 22, 2009)

Brilliant idea Andre!
Now take this money and leave the country before storm comes to rip you to pieces
I think I would take something very old in diary form, to get an insight of what it was like in that time period. I wouldn't take anything particularly special.
This question reminded me of an episode of Avatar...

Yeah, that would be awesome! A diary.


I have NFI. I'd REALLY like an original bible, before all the monks and shit messed it the fuck up. Just to see what was in it.

Ooh that would be cool too...
Except the diary would be more interesting to me, I like history.
Maybe some sort of diary of an English monarch... That would be awesome!
Lol I'm so awesome like that... hehehe

Umm... The Bromiliad by Terry Pratchett

Lunar (08:40pm Fri, May 22, 2009)

Brilliant idea Andre!
Now take this money and leave the country before storm comes to rip you to pieces
I think I would take something very old in diary form, to get an insight of what it was like in that time period. I wouldn't take anything particularly special.
This question reminded me of an episode of Avatar...

...Why would I rip him to pieces?

Lunar (09:01pm Fri, May 22, 2009)

Ooh that would be cool too...
Except the diary would be more interesting to me, I like history.
Maybe some sort of diary of an English monarch... That would be awesome!
Lol I'm so awesome like that... hehehe

Well.. I thought about it, and they were more...uhh.. factual than emotional. They didnt write to record their feelings and such, just their days. It could look like this:

Quote

JAN. 1st, 1883, Monday.
36º, slight snow-storm. Went to Newsboys' Lodging House.
Sent $50 ck. to Children's Aid Society. Made eleven calls.
Dined with father.
Read Stedman's "Poe."
The above would have been a gentleman's diary entry.
Here is what a lady's would be:
APRIL 13th, 1883, Friday.
51º, disagreeable wind. Caught slight cold. Called on Dr.
From Mary; to her. Mrs. Brown called.
Began Aldrich's "Story of Bad Boy."
"The words "from Mary; to her," mean, of course, that a letter was received and answered. "

http://www.victorianpassage.com/2007/02/19th_century_diaries_and_scrap.php

Yes we have struck a problem... lol.
Okay maybe just the diary of some rich person from the early nineteen hundreds
Then again, if they have every book ever in there, I should get an older one... But what if they speak funny!?
And storm you would rip him pieces because thats what you do like all the time.
What book what you choose storm?

Lunar (09:33pm Fri, May 22, 2009)

And storm you would rip him pieces because thats what you do like all the time.
What book what you choose storm?

Yes, but I rip people apart for good reasons.  I could point out that the Akashic Record never existed, as it was a metaphysical concept, but there's not a whole lot of point in that.

And I already posted earlier.  Either the very first work of total fiction written by a human hand, or something like a catalogue of the contents of the library at Alexandria.  Though after a friend mentioned it, I might choose something profound that was lost in the Bronze Age Collapse, assuming it would/could be translated to a modern language, and thus English, once taken from the library.

I might add that I'd get a translator...

I think I would pick something that will record our lives...I don't know if it even exists. Yet, I have found the book is quite fascinating if there's one out there.

Now, this is a hard question. Can't I get a microfilm containing everything? 

Kidding aside, maybe I'd go for the original Bible, just to know if what we have right now are correct translations. Or, maybe the catalogue of all the books inside that library, if there was one. And then I'd go build my own library. Haha.

Hmmm...hard question there. I have so many that I would love to keep...but I think I would like to have a book that was the REAL history of Humanity. It's origins and beginnings.

I don't mean religious books made up by a bunch of power hungry men...and by men I mean humans with penises...who found a way to not only dominate and control the body, but the spirit and soul too. I mean literally the actual REAL written down history of our species and where we started. No hocus-pocus or big, invisible beards in the sky making mud dolls and turning them into human beings, but the one and only, laid out in indisputable terms, that is the way it all happened, book.

I doubt such a book exists though...unless it would be the Akashic record.

^THAT would be awesome. I would love to read it.

The first Tijuana bible.

Changed my answer.

The very first holy book ever written for any of the abrahamic religions. I wonder how it would stack up to today modern holy books, with the advancements in science and whatnot.

I'm not saying I am or aren't an athiest, but these two topics must have effects on one another and I'd find it enjoyable to see to what extent this is true.