Play that in reverse and it looks like an unnerving revision of the "Mouse Trap" game. *ooh, my pinky! Thumb too! And the rest!*
What does it say about us that our a chance to basically play God is given and our first instinct is to fuck these people up with bad book suggestions! Jason
If you'd leave the bible behind, at least you know what kind of society you'd get., as we have done that one before. (Of course that's not really true, there still could be a myriad ways society develops around that book).
The Hobbit. A cautionary tale about how becoming too industrial or motivated by greed can destroy anyone, even those with good intentions. Also a classic example of living your life to the fullest and not getting caught up in what everyone else thinks of you, or how safe you are.
For me it's probably just that the amount of books I've read is low but also it was hard thinking of something inspiring. I could give them six volumes of Scott Pilgrim or Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down but...y'know. I'd like to give them the film Groundhog Day because of the effect the events in it has on Phil to basically just be nice to people and help them out for the sake of being nice.
I'd leave behind a copy of the Expanse novels by S.A. Corey, I figure it would a least leave the civilization in an advanced state ready to make contact with aliens. It makes me wonder what problems Star Trek style technology would solve for them, such as artificial gravity, defector shields, and ftl drives. I even made a pitch for it in a two year old thread.