The books are burning…

I’ve been tagged by James Pate and Nathan Stitt with the following blogging meme:

Books are scarce in the world. They are illegal in some provinces. They are not easily replaced if not impossible to replace if lost in many if not most circumstances. If you can replace a book or buy one it is usually through the black market at astronomical costs that you cannot afford. Yet you have been able to maintain one of the best collections in the world. If your entire library was about to burn up (think of the firefighters in Fahrenheit 451 invading your home) and you could only have one* book to take with you other than the bible, what would that be and why?

Simple Rules
Answer the question. Offer one quote that resonates with you. Tag five people whose response is of genuine interest to you and inform him or her that they have been tagged. Cheers!

*And it cannot be an entire series of something, that’s cheating.

It’s an interesting question and one that I didn’t have an immediate answer for. I thought that one probable response would be a book that creates an entire world of places and characters and situations that demand to be responded to on an intellectual and emotional level, such that it would be a natural place to apply and contrast my studies from the Bible. Of course, Nathan has already selected the first such world that came to mind, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. And since I actually do not own a copy of the set (yet), it would be somewhat disengenous of me to select it as such.

Perhaps one of Tolkien’s peers would provide a choice: C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Though this is more legitimately seven books, not one, disqualified by the “series clause” stated in the meme. That clause also disqualifies a thought-provoking choice of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game series, though the title book remains a front runner.

The next thought that comes to mind is “would or should I select a book that is specifically Christian in nature?” I had thought perhaps if not the Narnia set, then maybe “Mere Christianity”? But frankly, I’m not sure my mental curiosity could stand the focus of such a text, or any other theological monograph. And certainly none of the application-level tripe being published today would be worthy of such a monumental choice.

In the end, I’m going to select a book whose theme is as quixotic as this meme: “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, hereafter “Don Quixote” by Cervantes. Parts invented history, fastasy, romance, philosophy and farce, Don Quixote would last many hours of contemplation and application.

However, my quote will come, not from the book, but from an adaptation for musical theatre:

It is the mission of each true knight…
His duty… nay, his privilege!

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I’ll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

As for the next round of meme victims, I tag Iyov, Wayne Leman, Peter Kirk, Bryan Lilly and Kevin Sam.