Three books to base a society on.

[Innocent Flower]

1: The hungry catapillar
2: the Pilot's manual for a bf 109
3: the lusty argonian maid.

Scrap 3. try... jack in the box

 

[IVIasterJay]

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Pit and the Pendulum
3. The Birds

My society won't last a day.

 

[cwmdulais]

1. Catch 22
2. The Mater and Margarita
3. Welcome to the desert of the real

 

[Tom_green_day]

1. Brave New World. If you've read it you'll know why
2. Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, because he is a god to be worshipped.
3. The Beach. That would be a nice little utopia, until it stops being so.

1

oh wait, that's a play. Uhm..
3. 1984

You do realise that's a play too?

 

[The Apple BOOM]

Bible
Brave New World
Fountainhead

If you temper Ayn Rand (probably spelled her name wrong) with morality, her ideas are great. On their own, they're psychopathic.

 

[Vhite]

True Love by Robert Fulghum
Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein
Large pile of love letters

:3

 

[Double A]

The Color of Magic
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Pokemon Adventures

Do I win?

 

[Ledan]

"Guns, germs, and steel" by Jared Diamond.
"Origin of species" By Charles Darwin.
"The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.

Two are influential books that have shaped the modern world, and Diamond's book provides an objective history of the world.

All of them have their merits and criticisms, but I think they are necessary for a modern society.

 

[J Tyran]

1, Spot the Dog: Fun with Spot
2, Mr Men: Mr Tickle
3, The very hungry Caterpillar

 

[Chaosian]

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Pit and the Pendulum
3. The Birds

My society won't last a day.

I like that list.
I'd go with:

1. Metro 2033
2. The Call of Cthuhu (or something akin to it, like At the Mountains of Madness if the Call of Cthulhu is too short)
3. House of Leaves

It would be an enlightened world - in the worst possible way.

 

[shrimpcel]

1. Les misérables
2. War & Peace
3. Notes from the Underground

Reading other people's suggestions kinda makes me sad... Where's the good litterature people???

 

[DRTJR]

1. Les misérables
2. War & Peace
3. Notes from the Underground

Reading other people's suggestions kinda makes me sad... Where's the good literature people???

Just because it's well written that does not mean the world it beautifully builds is desirable to live in. I love brave more world but I would hate to live in that wasteland.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

1) Paranoia 2nd Edition (TTRPG handbook)
2) Nothing else needed, do you doubt the Computer? DIE COMMIE TRAITOR!!

 

[The]

1. The Yellowpages
2. A Swiss Chalet Menu
3. My grocery list

Masterpieces. All of them.

Someone posted The Lorax as one of the options, which I think sums up a big part of our world pretty well.

 

[notred360]

1. fellowship of the ring
2. any one of the many star wars books
3. a book based in the warhammerer 40k universe
(for 2 and 3, the actual book doesn't matter)

this society will be taught that all these books are true and connect into one story, they will worship the god emperor, who had han solo and gandalf the grey under his command. then i shall release these madmen upon the internet. all that is geek shall fear their wrath! their confusing, plot hole filled wrath!

 

[6_Qubed]

1.) Zombie Survival Guide, because clearly it was zombies that destroyed society. (World War Z is sort of implied, as my scavenger legions will no doubt find copies of it on their own and it's not exactly vital)
2.) Show Me How, a visual how-to guide with pictograms instead of written instructions (I'm a visual learner myself so that's a nice touch)
3.) DIY for Dummies. Really, any of the "practical knowledge for dummies" books could fit here, but knowing how to cook a thing isn't very helpful if you don't know how to build a kitchen first.

 

[Raesvelg]

1. The Killing Star, by Pellegrino and Zebrowski
2. Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond
3. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

I want a constructively paranoid society that knows where it came from, and thinks about where it's going.

 

[Shdwrnr]

1. Atlas Shrugged
2. Starship Troopers
3. Nicomachean Ethics

Militarist Objectivist Eudaimonia ftw

 

[Rblade]

1 Physics for scientists and engineers (a 1500 page introduction to pretty much every basic coscience you can think off)
2 Some condensed history book off all the things
3 collected works of shakespear, because that would catch the most birds with 1 stone.

boring straight up answer but everyone seems to be overseeing that without some kind of science manual we would be banging stuff with rocks and sticks for a couple thousand years. Plus I would be a fan of a logic and science based society

 

[Saxnot]

In the interest of perpetuating my desired future area of expertise (forensics) and facilitating my status as a crime-solving individual, I would choose:

1) Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie.
2) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
3) And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie.

Please note that two of these books involve crimes that would remain unsolved were it not for the confession of the criminals themselves. The difficulty setting of this world would be Hardcore Hell Nightmare.

you're planning a society based on murder mysteries? i don't think any society can sustain more than one Sherlock holmes or Hercule Poirot...