Michael Dirda's Desert Island Books

Description
The list was published in the Washington Post on January 12th, 2022. The list is limited to 20th-century prose by English-language authors.
1
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
27,748 members
368 reviews
4.1
4 Members
hipdeep, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
2
Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons
6,405 members
241 reviews
4
4 Members
ahef1963, NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
3
The Man Who Was Thursday
by G. K. Chesterton
7,891 members
192 reviews
3.8
3 Members
hipdeep, ahef1963, auldhouse
4
Collected Ghost Stories
by M. R. James
2,579 members
45 reviews
4.2
3 Members
NinieB, ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
5
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
35,239 members
634 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
6
In Patagonia
by Bruce Chatwin
3,626 members
102 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
ahef1963, auldhouse
7
The Thurber Carnival
by James Thurber
2,826 members
37 reviews
4.2
2 Members
hipdeep, auldhouse
8
Small World
by David Lodge
2,247 members
35 reviews
3.9
2 Members
ahef1963, auldhouse
9
The Art of Eating
by M. F. K. Fisher
2,024 members
22 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
hipdeep, auldhouse
10
Captain Blood
by Rafael Sabatini
1,893 members
61 reviews
4.2
2 Members
hipdeep, auldhouse
11
A Fan's Notes
by Frederick Exley
1,203 members
14 reviews
4.1
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
12
The Mouse and His Child
by Russell Hoban
1,152 members
32 reviews
4.2
2 Members
ManWithAnAgenda, auldhouse
13
Performing Flea
by P. G. Wodehouse
146 members
2 reviews
4.1
2 Members
hipdeep, auldhouse
14
Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times
by Carl Barks
84 members
2 reviews
½ 4.7
2 Members
hipdeep, auldhouse
15
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt
17,010 members
313 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
16
Kim
by Rudyard Kipling
10,196 members
216 reviews
3.8
Member
auldhouse
17
Nights at the Circus
by Angela Carter
2,938 members
55 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
18
Lud-in-the-Mist
by Hope Mirrlees
2,261 members
61 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
19
The Urth of the New Sun
by Gene Wolfe
2,028 members
28 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
20
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
by Chris Van Allsburg
1,833 members
79 reviews
½ 4.5
Member
auldhouse
21
The Moving Toyshop
by Edmund Crispin
1,584 members
70 reviews
3.8
Member
auldhouse
22
Up in the Old Hotel
by Joseph Mitchell
1,570 members
22 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
auldhouse
23
Arabian Sands
by Wilfred Thesiger
1,391 members
26 reviews
4.1
Member
auldhouse
24
Little Big Man
by Thomas Berger
1,350 members
35 reviews
4.1
Member
auldhouse
25
Mrs. Bridge
by Evan S. Connell
1,209 members
43 reviews
4.1
Member
auldhouse
26
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos
1,121 members
35 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
auldhouse
27
Three Coffins
by John Dickson Carr
981 members
41 reviews
3.8
Member
auldhouse
28
The Box of Delights
by John Masefield
925 members
22 reviews
4
Member
auldhouse
29
Fancies and Goodnights
by John Collier
818 members
16 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
30
United States: Essays 1952-1992
by Gore Vidal
769 members
8 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
auldhouse
31
A Day with Wilbur Robinson
by William Joyce
618 members
17 reviews
3.9
Member
auldhouse
32
The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
by Charles Nicholl
596 members
12 reviews
4.2
Member
auldhouse
33
The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus
by Cyril Connolly
560 members
4 reviews
3.8
Member
auldhouse
34
The Geography of the Imagination
by Guy Davenport
552 members
11 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
auldhouse
35
Hindoo Holiday: An Indian Journal
by J. R. Ackerley
466 members
9 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
auldhouse
36
The Private World of Georgette Heyer
by Jane Aiken Hodge
417 members
15 reviews
4
Member
auldhouse
38
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place
by Harry Crews
390 members
10 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
auldhouse
39
Shakespeare's Lives
by Samuel Schoenbaum
374 members
7 reviews
4.2
Member
auldhouse
40
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things
by Gilbert Sorrentino
247 members
7 reviews
4.1
Member
auldhouse
41
On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript
by Robert K. Merton
225 members
8 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
auldhouse
43
Seven Men and Two Others
by Sir Max Beerbohm
197 members
2 reviews
4
Member
auldhouse
44
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars
by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
188 members
8 reviews
4.2
Member
auldhouse
45
Last Letters from Hav
by Jan Morris
186 members
4 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
auldhouse
46
Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould
by Kevin Bazzana
175 members
2 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
auldhouse
47
A Cab at the Door
by V. S. Pritchett
162 members
4 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
auldhouse
48
The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives
by Diane Johnson
145 members
2 reviews
4.2
Member
auldhouse
49
Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship
by Robert Craft
106 members
2 reviews
4.1
Member
auldhouse
50
The Complete Firbank (Picador Classics)
by Ronald Firbank
91 members
1 review
4
Member
auldhouse
51
Kipling, Auden and Company: Essays and Reviews, 1935-1964
by Randall Jarrell
82 members
½ 3.5
Member
auldhouse
53
Lost Property: Memoirs & Confessions of a Bad Boy
by Ben Sonnenberg
76 members
½ 2.7
Member
auldhouse
54
Paris Journal, 1944-1965
by Janet Flanner
71 members
½ 3.5
Member
auldhouse
55
The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh
by Evelyn Waugh
68 members
1 review
3.8
Member
auldhouse
56
Tellers of Tales
by Roger Lancelyn Green
44 members
3.9
Member
auldhouse
57
A.J.A. Symons, His Life and Speculations
by Julian Symons
31 members
4
Member
auldhouse
58
Morreion: A Tale of The Dying Earth
by Jack Vance
23 members
1 review
½ 3.4
Member
auldhouse
60
Jorkens Remembers Africa
by Lord Dunsany
21 members
4.1
Member
auldhouse
61
The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters (Complete set)
by George Lyttelton
9 members
Member
auldhouse