If someone could only read 10 books, what 10 would you give them?

Suppose you were given the task of picking the only 10 books someone would ever read, which would they be and why?

So far, I think these would have to make the list (in no particular order):

The Art of War

The Old Testament

The New Testament

The Koran

A book of general knowledge, a dictionary, Iliad, Walden, Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, The Tao of Pooh/The Te of Piglet, I guess. Maybe Alice in Wonderland, or Plato, or Lovecraft.. This is too hard.

The Book Of Mormon would really be the only one on my list

Well, based on the books I have read, these are some books I think everyone should read or at least check out sometime in their lifetime.

1. The Bible (King James Version)
2. Book Of Secrets - Osho
3. Career Warfare - D'Alessandro
4. How To Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie
5. Secrets Of Closing The Sale - Zig Ziglar
6. The Richest Man In Babylon - George Clason
7. Think and Grow Rich - Napolean Hill
8. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
9. Personal Finance For Dummies
10. Cashflow Quadrant

Sex for Dummies
Dating for Dummies
The Bible for Dummies
PHP5 for Dummies
Bartending for Dummies
Job Interviews for Dummies
Everybody Poops
Etiquette for Dummies
Making Marriage Work for Dummies
Divorce for Dummies

That should cover you for life.

[edit on 12-27-2005 by dreamlandmafia]

I can only give advice on one book at the moment! Its what i'm reading now and its quite addictive to read.

Its one that was advertised on Oprah.

'Million Little Pieces' by James Frey.

Book about how horrible it is to get off addiction to all sorts of stuff. Autobiography!

Kind Regards
Merger

a book with no words in it, just blank sheets of paper
any compact history/knowledge of the world book
"Demian" -Hermann Hesse
"Born Into Light"- ..?
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
any book which lists in it the entirety (or as close to it) of the number pi
The Book of Thoth
A current astronomy guide to whatever time period they are "living" in
a book of maps
a basic arithmetic/mathematics textbook


instructions on how to use the internet

I can think of 2 at the moment:

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh - to give an idea of what today's disenfranchised youth can easily fall into. Or to present a metaphor of all our lives.

1984 by George Orwell - to give us all some perspective and place our own selves in the larger picture of government/population. Why do the boundaries appear blurred? Because that's the way it is - governments in a democracy are representative of a population. They are the same as us/they are us.

'The Life of Christ' by Fulton Sheen
Best book I have ever read!

For education (and conspiracy!!)
'Lincoln and Booth' by H. Donald Winkler

For fun I'd say -
'The Talisman' by Peter Straub and Steven King

I could give someone 10 books to read, but they would have to be mainly for women.

The whole Diana Gabaldon series. These books have a way of bringing the story to life in any woman's imagination. I've read other books, but these are the ones that made the most impact.

'Outlander'
'Dragonfly in Amber'
'Voyager'
'Drums of Autumn'
'Firery Cross'
'A Breath of Snow and Ashes'

The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe
The Collected Works of Orson Scott Card
The Collected Works of HP Lovecraft
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Bible
The Collected Works of Myself(Not quite famous yet but getting there
)
And thats all I can think of for now.
Math textbook? Bah! Who needs it.