A Sort-of Meme

Last night, hanging out with kniedzw, swan_tower, and moonartemis76, we had a talk about what three books we would want if, well, we could only have three. This has been on my mind anyway because I want to take only a very small number of books with me to Japan. So I propose the meme:

If you could have three books and only three books (not three series, though anthology volumes are allowed) what three books would they be and why (why is optional)?

(I, for one, intend to use replies to figure out what books that I've never read I should take with me on my trip. ;) )
( My Response )