Is there a book you can't live without?

We all need air, food, and shelter to survive, but when those are fulfilled, we can turn our energies to other things.

I like to turn to books and reading. Some are fiction. Others are informational nonfiction. I have collections of letters of famous thinkers and travel journals from past centuries. Classical philosophy occupies quite a bit of my bookshelves. I used to have many more books than I have now. I think I’ve whittled it down to the core.

There are two books that I wouldn’t give up for the world. They are Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot. Reading them time and time again is like breathing to me.

Do you have any books that are as dear to you as your most basic instincts?