Desert Island Books...

[mosaix]

Don't know if this has been done before...

There's a long running BBC radio programme call "Desert Island Discs". Guests on the show are invited to choose ten pieces of music that they would like to have with them if they are cast away on a desert(ed) island.

I though the idea would transfer well to books.

So, choose ten books that you would like to have with you if you were cast away for an indefinite period. You don't have to choose them all at one go, you can mull it over, come back to the thread and add to the list until you get to ten. Fiction, non-fiction or reference. And, in keeping with the radio programme, give a brief reason why you chose the book.

My first choice, because I would like to use the time profitably by catching up on my writing would be Roget's Thesaurus.

So my list so far:

1) Roget's Thesaurus

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I've always loved those questions! I remember starting a speech class in college where the professor asked the "what three people, living or dead, real or imaginary, would you like to have dinner with" question. The students were answering things like, "my mother and Michael Jackson" and all the usual tripe, and when it came to me I said Sir Thomas More, Socrates and Mark Twain. He looked at me like a drowning man who had just been thrown a life preserver. Unfortunately, I had to drop out of that school and go back home because my dad was sick, so I never got to discuss it with him.

The book one, though, it's been a long time since I made that list. I'll have to contemplate that one for a while.

 

[Gramm838]

My number one choice would be:

"How to survive an extended period on a desert island' - the Megadodo Publications first issue is the best...

 

[mosaix]

Okay, my second book.

Astronomy is one of my interests and I have a telescope but street lights etc means viewing isn't perfect. I pretty much expect that there's going to be dark nights on a desert island - very dark nights. Ideal for star gazing. So my second choice: Guide To The Night Sky by Sir Patrick Moore.

My list so far:

1) Roget's Thesaurus
2) Guide To The Night Sky by Sir Patrick Moore.

 

[Mouse]

Ten books? I can't even think of one at the moment. My mind always goes blank on these things. I like the thesaurus idea.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Oooh, not easy.

1. Captain Corelli's Mandolin -- because there are sections I can dip into loads of times and bits that I can read for hours.

2. Time Traveller's Wife -- for much the same reason, it's a dip into book.

3. The Bible -- Not that I'm a believer, but I've never read it all, and there's lots in it, so if I get very bored, I'll not run out of words.

4. Maps in a Mirror by Orson Scott Card -- it's thick, there's loads of good stories in it, and I'll not run out quickly.

I'll have to think about the others. Are we allowed series, or only one book of a series?

You know, to be honest, I'd just like ten big notebooks and a couple of pens. Imagine the writing I'd get done...

 

[Venusian Broon]

Depends what sort of desert island it is,

If it's a bit like the Lost island, then

The SAS survival manual
A Brief History of Time
A script of The Empire Strikes Back (in case I bump into Hurley)
Carrie (again, just in case they invite me to the book club)
Our Mutual Friend (To taunt Desmond, 'cause I have read it and I'm alive)



EDIT - oh I forgot, I'd need a manual on Small arms proficiency, 'cause I'll never be let out on a mission unless I can throw a knife or can look professional by handling and cocking a 9mm automatic like a pro.

 

[Mouse]

Bah ha ha ha! Poor Desmond.

Ok...

1. Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales.
2. Duncton Wood by William Horwood (and the next two books if we're allowed to take series as one!)

 

[Venusian Broon]

Bah ha ha ha! Poor Desmond.

Actually he might have the last laugh at me, if my own deeply personal, mad-as-bat-**** paranoid Lost-based conspiracy theory is true. And yes it involves that book. Amongst loads of other things.

But I'll save that for a rainy day and another thread (or rubber wallpapered ward...)

 

[antiloquax]

I think that in the original Desert Island Discs you get The Bible and Shakespeare's complete works "for free".

I'd be hard-pressed to choose. I'd have to go for some big books that I have put off reading ... Proust springs to mind!

 

[Extollager]

In case anyone would be interested in a different approach to a related idea, here's a thread that drew responses for a while.

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/534114-your-nursing-home-200-books.html

The thread began with this idea:

Each of us owns quite a few books. Very well: Suppose I have to move somewhere, let's say into a nursing home, where I can keep only 200 of them. Which books would I keep?

The idea was that you discuss books you own as of now. Thinking about this situation might, here and there, prompt people to realize there are books they would want to get, but don't yet own, if this situation occurred.

I hope nobody objects to my mentioning this earlier thread -- it's not my intention to subvert the present one. Choosing ten books for a desert island is a situation of its own!

 

[mosaix]

I'll have to think about the others. Are we allowed series, or only one book of a series?

Series allowed but each book in the series counts as one of the ten.

I think that in the original Desert Island Discs you get The Bible and Shakespeare's complete works "for free".

If you want to take them, fine. But each one counts.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I would probably change my mind every day. For today, I'll start with:

1. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. This endlessly witty and entertaining "meditation on mind and machines" manages to be philosophically dense and pure fun to read at the same time.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Right, then, I'll be canny and choose Vorkosigan's Miles in Love as number 5 as it has three volumes in one book.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

2. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville. Of all the standard literary classics, this one is the richest, deepest, and most seductively readable.

 

[Mouse]

Ok then,

1. Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales
2. Duncton Wood by William Horwood
3. Duncton Quest by William Horwood
4. Duncton Found by William Horwood
5. Gonna nick mosaix's idea and go with the Thesaurus
6. Then I'll probably nick VB's idea and go for the survival manual.
7. His Dark Marterials by Philip Pullman (I'll take the all in one edition)
8. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
9.
10.

Ok, so I can't think of a 9 and 10. I'd like Robin Hobb but don't have room and can't pick one.

 

[AndrewT]

1. Robinson Crusoe
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Adventures of Ben Gunn

All designed to give one hope of being rescued from said island.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Well, if I don't get it free, I'd better start with it, then.

1. Complete works of Shakespeare
2. Complete works of Edgar Allan Poe

I have both of those in one book each, so I know they count that way.

Now, just how far is my island from mosaix's island? Maybe I could borrow the thesaurus....

 

[Rodders]

1. The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Whether or not we can take the whole series.)
2. The Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds.
3. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.
4. The Lord of The Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. I've not read it, but I might have some time to kill.
5. The Guant's Ghost series by Dan Abnett.

Nothing high brow for me.

 

[Montero]

I think definitely some practical ones as above.

Other than that - do omnibus editions count as one? (Please )

Hope the Shakespeare is the complete works - sonnets, the lot!

Kind of like the Bible to be the King James version for the beauty of the language. (And it just occurred to me what a naff sentence that was, when saying I want a certain Bible edition for the beauty of the language!)

I think my selection would have to have in it, Rosemary Sutcliff, Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde - but which ones and what else? Hhmm.

When I used to get library books out from the school library for the summer holiday I usually went with "very thick". (e.g. MM Kaye, Far Pavilions).