Only one book.

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

Strong choice! Nothing sexier than a hawt contrarian!!!

Why thank you

[atlcomedy]

Originally Posted by ..

your society?

suggest an alternative...

and yes our/your...why shouldn't I suggest the alien read something relevant to my society?

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by atlcomedy

suggest an alternative...

and yes our/your...why shouldn't I suggest the alien read something relevant to my society?

Or we could just get the alien a Kindle and be done with it...

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by Valerie

Or we could just get the alien a Kindle and be done with it...

If you get the alien an iPad, it can see flops or watch movies when it grows tired of reading...all the way home!

Just sayin'....

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

If you get the alien an iPad, it can see flops or watch movies when it grows tired of reading...all the way home!

Just sayin'....

But what about all that stuff on flash they would be missing?

[..]

Originally Posted by atlcomedy

my society?

"my" is not "our". just sayin'.

[Sisyphus]

Originally Posted by discreetgent

But what about all that stuff on flash they would be missing?

EskimoTube runs on Flash???

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

EskimoTube runs on Flash???

as does pornhub, tube8, etc, etc.

[atlcomedy]

Originally Posted by ..

"my" is not "our". just sayin'.

that's fine dot dot but again instead of answering the OP's question with a reco of your own, you seem more interested in mine:mf_afro :

[WTF]

Originally Posted by atlcomedy

a Bible

Hey what if he told ya it was his autobiography, would you get him to sign it?

Originally Posted by Valerie

The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins

Good read but if that alien wasn't lying to atl , I'd be in trouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuble:mf_lus tslow:

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Valerie

The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins

Speaking of Dawkins, he dedicated this particular book to Douglas Adams. Hence, I recommend Douglas Adams’ Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Therein, Adams describes man’s innocuous origins and describes man in such a way that no alien race could feel threatened by man’s existence: Adams describes how “Golgafrincham is a red semi-desert planet that is home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium and a species of particularly inspiring lichen. Its people decided it was time to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population, and so the descendants of the Circling Poets concocted a story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in a great catastrophe. (It was apparently under threat from a "mutant star goat"). The useless third of the population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two. The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and "led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone".

“The B-Ark was programmed to crash-land on a suitably remote planet on one of the outer spiral arms of the galaxy, which happened to be Earth, and the Golgafrinchan rejects gradually mingled with and usurped the native cavemen*, becoming the ancestors of humanity and thereby altering the course of the great experiment to find the question for the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, or so Ford Prefect presumes. A lot of them didn't make it through the winter three years prior to Arthur Dent's reunion with Ford Prefect, and the few who remained in the spring said they needed a holiday and set out on a raft. History says they must have survived.”

“* Arthur reflexively called the primitive Earth primates "cavemen", despite Ford pointing out that they didn't actually live in caves as such, to which Arthur wittily replied “‘Maybe their caves are being remodeled.’”

The preceding novel of the five-book trilogy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, is also very good.

“In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, it is established that by the present day the real imperial rule has been long since abolished. It is explained that when the last Galactic Emperor was just about to die, he was put under a stasis field of static electricity, keeping his body perpetually alive in a coma. Over time, all the emperor's heirs died and the Galactic Empire shifted from monarchy to democracy, with the galactic assembly of the imperial advisors switching from privy council to administration, with the head of the council becoming President of the Galaxy.

“Thus it is further explained that since the shift to democracy brought an end to the previous absolutism, this meant there was a chance the head of state wasn't just not in full power but not in power at all; and so the President of the Galaxy became an extreme figurehead; a celebrity, but someone who could reasonably be in power. Thus, the president and the entire executive branch's purpose is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. But only a handful of people know this fact, and only six of them know who actually wields power.”

[Roark]

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana

[charlestudor2005]

Originally Posted by atlcomedy

Fair question...not because I read from it everyday, although as part of a service I read from it or listen to portions of it regularly... I think a lot of people fall into this category. I know I certainly do. And it doesn't have to be a "church" service. The Bible is read in lots of venues (excluding government).

..believe me I'm no "Bible Thumper" I had no delusions about this.

but simply put it was an honest answer...what more significant book is there is you can pick just one...even if you don't follow the belief system in it...for at least giving this "alien" context about our society?

There have been countless "adrift in a raft" or "stranded on an island" queries about "who" or "what books" would you choose to have with you. Common answers include the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Jesus, the Pope (this alone might make a good thread).

[pjorourke]

My favorite is the Count of Monte Cristo -- but I don't know if it would translate well to alien.

[Rudyard K]

Well, I'd have to go with ATL and Ans on the book. But I'm not sure if I would pick that as the book I would "want"...but defintely the book I would need...hence the book that most represented me.

I guess the book I would "want" would be a simple book called "101 famous Poems", compiled by Roy Cook. I could read from that that every day...and bet the Alien could too.

It does seem ATL, that there are a few posters on here that prefer to jump into the snipe...rather than even feign an attempt at staying on the subject matter. It does bore me.