What SF novels would YOU shoot into space on a roadster?

Cafe Society
1

A couple of weeks ago, as many of you know, Elon Musk launched his car into space on a billion-year orbit, give or take some eons depending on material degradation and/or chance impact of meteoroids or planets.

He also, however, included a couple of bonus items in the payload: A copy of The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox, and a copy of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy encoded on a new type of optical storage crystal.

That got me wondering, though: what sci-fi books would everyone HERE have included, if they’d built and launched their own car probe? According to whatever criteria you personally choose—'could be books that are humourously apropos, or have some message you wish to carry into the future, or are just a personal favorite. Your choice.

My own picks? So far:

-The Man Who Sold the Moon—Robert A. Heinlein. Seems appropriate, somehow.
-From the Earth to the Moon—Jules Verne. Also seems appropriate, plus for historical, sentimental reasons. 'Be better from a gun-launch, of course, but hey, whacha gonna do?

…aaand, I thought I had a couple of more ideas, but know I can’t remember what they are. Drat.

So…anyone else?

2

Well, I definitely wouldn’t include The Dark Forest, sequel to The Three-Body Problem, as it’s hard to think of a novel more inclined to convinced aliens to destroy our planet.

At the other extreme, I’d send The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a lovely recent book that would convince aliens that humans are good folk worth having around.

3

Well, since the dash said “Don’t Panic”, HHGttG would have seemed the appropriate choice.

4

The Getaway Special by Jerry Oltion. I’ve never read it, but it’s about the development of a cheap (as in, a few dollars) starship drive, which effectively lets anyone become a space explorer. Seems appropriate.

Also, The Martian by Andy Weir, since I think Mark Watney, the hero, would find the idea amusing.

5

The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a great choice. The Man Who Sold the Moon was what I thought of before I saw you included it, so I’ll add a vote for it. A copy of Heavy Metal might also be good.

6

That depends. Do we have the option of launching all copies of the work?

7

In a roadster? I could send only one. On the Beach, if we don’t mind considering that Sci-Fi