Desert Island Books

A word of explanation in case Desert Island Discs never crossed the pond. It's a radio show where famous people (not so much the current celebs as writers, film producers, politicians etc) have to nominate 8 records they would take with them if they had to be stranded on a desert island (they get a record player too, which opens a whole can of worms about electricity supplies to this island or where to get new batteries, but we book people won't have to worry about that).

So who needs all those records? When I'm stuck on a desert island I want to be able to read so when you're shipwrecked from my boat you can take 12 books (cutting the list down that far was hard enough!), plus all the paper and pens you need to write that novel you know you're going to write one day.

Just to start off, my list - like most people's, I suspect - morphs a bit from time to time but this is as good as I've got yet (in no particular order):

Middlemarch
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
The Grapes of Wrath
The Crimson Petal and the White
The Remains of the Day
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Deptford Trilogy
The Magus
Jude the Obscure
Life of Pi
To Kill a Mockingbird
Great Expectations

As always with these lists, the problem is what to leave out, rather than what to put in. I've limited myself to one book per author which meant only one Michel Faber, only one George Eliot, only one John Irving, only one (there are tears in my eyes now) ONLY ONE JOHN STEINBECK (and how I did that I'll never know!) On the whole I've gone for longish books, bearing in mind all the time I'm going to have sitting under that palm tree - which meant Grapes instead of Cannery Row, and Great Expectations rather than Two Cities.

Some of the books that came very close but it breaks my heart to leave out will just have to be jettisoned from the boat in a separate trunk and I'll have to keep fingers crossed that one day they will wash up on shore. They include The Enchanted April, Jane Eyre, The Kite Runner, The Go-Between, Les Liaisons Dangereuse, The Bell and everything by Stephen King (I so wanted to bring The Stand but what could I leave out?)

So what are the rest of you packing?

ETA - By the way, you're not allowed anthologies (that would be cheating) or any practical 'how to get off the island' books.

Hmm. Isn't the Deptford Trilogy cheating?
Off the top of my head:

A Prayer for Owen Meany
War and Peace
The Master and Margarita
Peacable Kingdom
Emma
Time's Witness
The Stand
Silence of the Lambs
Remains of the Day
Last Call
Phineas Finn
Pictures of Perfection

Oops, you're right - and by my own criteria too. Okay then, I'll reluctantly swap that one for A Passage to India. I suppose I was thinking of it as one book as that's how I've got it and I really meant no made-up anthologies (like 'The Complete Works of Barbara Cartland' - though if you really want to bring those I guess they'll help keep the fire going). You're quite right though, Quartzite - I'm backing down gracefully. I also forgot to add (viz the rules of Desert Island Discs) you do get the King James Bible and Shakey's Complete Works too.

I actually had a dream the other night: I was being smuggled into China and I could only take ONE BOOK with me. So getting to choose twelve books is a relief. Mine would be:
The NIV Bible
The Magician's Nephew
The Borrowers Afield
Pride and Prejudice
Cheaper By the Dozen
An Ordinary Princess
An Old Fashioned Girl
Watership Down

Dragon's Milk
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Swiss Family Robinson (does that count?)
Finally, I would take a book that I'd never heard of (preferably historical fiction) to keep with me and read when I got off the island. (Kind of like Tom Hanks with the package on "Cast Away")

Actually, I was just teasing.

See, this is working quite well already. So far I also get to read Quartzite's Emma and The Stand, plus AustenGirl's Borrowers, P & P, Magician's Nephew and Watership Down and that's before I even get round to the ones I'm not so familiar with. I'm assuming we all wash up on the same island in which case we could probably make do with just one copy of Owen Meany but I'm also guessing that one might just wear out very fast so maybe we're better off as we were.

ETA - Go on then, AustenGirl, which one did you take to China?

Oh my God, Quartzite! Just looked at your profile page - what gorgeous dogs!

I'm not sure I decided that! But I can tell you now that it would be the Bible. It's the most important Book in the world!

Call me crazy, but I'd pack along at least one survival manual! (SAS Survival Handbook, US Army Survival Handbook-Something!)

I'd bring along my biochem textbook-if I'm ever going to learn it, it'll be while I'm stranded somewhere with little else to read.
And the same goes for my botany text book. Plus, between the two, I might get help identifying things that could kill me!

Foucault's Pendulum-or anything else by Umberto Eco-again, the issolation should allow me to finally concentrate on each part of it properly.
Doubt: A history
The annotated Alice
Something by Dave Barry-the man is hillarious and I think I'd need my spirits lifted
A short history of nearly everything-funny, dense, and informative
The Red Tent-a good one to reread alot
The Neverending Story
The 21 Lessons of Merlin
Handmaid's Tale

-Edited because I get more books!

>8 AustenGirl:

If Booksloth is playing by the established Roy Plomley rules, we all get the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare automatically.

Hmm. Thinks...

Robinson Crusoe
The Swiss family Robinson
Foe
The Tempest
Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island
Lord of the flies
The Coral Island
The blue lagoon

...no, I don't think so, somehow. I'll have a proper go later.

#8 Ooooh, courting controversy there!
#9 I think that first one counts as a practical one which is barred (see #1)
#10 Yes, already pointed that out - #3 See where you're going with those, Thorold! Maybe we need to develop the themes a bit more . . .

Yeah, but that's only how to get off the island, not how to survive on it. I'm fine playing Giligan for a while, I just don't want to eat the wrong kind of grub and die! :)

For those of us not in the know-what exactly were Roy Plomley's rules (I'm on the wrong side of the pond for that reference). I gather he was the one in charge of the Desert Island Discs program, so I'm assuming he had some kind of rule that said everyone got a the White Album and the complete works of Mozart automatically or something. Am I close?

#12 No, but don't forget that his prog was about records, not books. The record choice was absolutely free but then they got to take eight of them (I like the idea about the White Album and Mozart though - I guess Roy just said no if there were too many duplicates). As the castaways were only allowed to choose one book, they were also informed that the King James Bible and Shakey's Complete Works were already on the island (presumably left there by some former castaway, which rather suggests he'd got so fed up with them both by the time he left he didn't bother to take them with him). They also got to take one luxury item. No practical books or items were allowed (either to help them leave the island of survive on it, but I should have explained that properly - which I didn't).

ETA - Oh, and the records were single tracks/songs only - no albums.
And, for some reason, food and shelter presumably wasn't a worry or I don't suppose people would have been lying around listening to records all day. Sounds like my kind of island (lacking only Naveen Andrews to make it perfect).

*Sigh* OK, I'll agree not to take a survival manual. That's always my answer when someone asks me what one book I'd want with me on a desert island, mostly because I'm a smart ass.

OK, well, how about the first Lord of the Rings novels. Again, I think that's one of the only ways I'll actually read it.

This question really requires alot of thought and time -- which I don't have (too busy reading) but I'll give it a quick go:

Middlemarch
Gone with the Wind
Wuthering Heights
A Hundred Years of Solitude
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (I guess thats three, but worth it)
Watership Down
Mansfield Park
Rebecca
Lonesome Dove
War and Peace

that ought to keep me busy -- I went for favorites that are long, involved, and that I would want to re-read. I am not entirely sure about Rebecca, but I needed a mystery that wouldn't suffer once you know the 'whodunnit.'

I'm not sure I'd want to tempt fate by reading a book titled A Hundred Years of Solitude while stranded. :D

#15 Please can I read your Rebecca too? And your Mansfield Park?

Atlas Shrugged
The Brothers Karamazov
To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
On the Beach
Califia's Daughters
Hondo
A Distant Music (The Tin Whistle) (The Penny Whistle) It’s one book, sold under different names.
Alice in Wonderland
The Stand
The Hornet’s Nest
Devil’s Embrace

Just enough for a round-robin

On the Beach? Another goodie for sure - hadn't thought of that one - but another depressing one too. Maybe we should keep that one in a corner with A Hundred Years just in case we start enjoying ourselves too much?

#11 -- Yeah, I figured I'd get a comment out of that. Read it and find out for yourself ;)

Why are you assuming I haven't read it?

Sorry, Booksloth. I guess I was being too hasty to judge.

Here`s my 12 -

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Bram Stoker - Dracula
Pierre Quiroule - The Case of the Bismarck Papers
Jack Trevor Story - The Season of the Skylark
J B Priestley - All about Ourselves
George Bernard Shaw - The Black Girl In Search of God
C E M Joad - Plato
Paula Fox - Desparate Characters
Gordon Willis - Kilroy Is Here
Edward Fitzgerald (trans) - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
P G Wodehouse - Psmith in the City
David Levering Lewis - W E B Du Bois : Biography of the Race

I`m including the last one as presumably on a desert island I`d find time to finish the thing, which hasn`t happened so far !

My desert island has different rules to yours and I can take a favourite piece of music, so I`m taking a tune called Magic which I believe is by The Skatalites, although for some reason my copy is credited to three band members (Tommy McCook, Baba Brooks and Don Drummond).

Of course, if you ask me tomorrow, I`ll come up with a completely different list, except for Magic which has been my favourite tune for years.

Oh nnguugghh. Now I have to come up with a piece of music too. I'll have to think about that one overnight but I warn you now, it'll be picked for sentimental reasons, not for any musical merit. Let's throw in a poem too - bags I Ithaka by C P Cavafy.

Oh, I know! The End of a Beautiful Friendship, by Nat King Cole.

For my twelve I tried to think which books I would look forward to seeing every morning when I woke up, books that would fit every possible mood.

Tale of Two Cities Dickens
Pride and Prejudice Austin
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons
Ever Since Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould
Our Mutual Friend Dickens
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rowling
Sons and Lovers DH Lawrence
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters

I made my choices using the motto of "Know Thyself". 1. Though I would miss my favorites, I know that I would crave new stuff, so I've never read any of these books even though I own them all. They're all nice and heavy.
2. I need something physical to spend my time on (stop sniggering), so I've included a few hobby books.
I also know that no matter how much I loved a particular song I'd be sick of it in two days, so I'd prefer to take a recording of my husband's voice. Or "The Young Ones". Whichever.
1. A History of Britain by Simon Schama
2. Leaves of Grass by Whitman
3. The Crimson Petal and the White by Faber
4. Vanity Fair by Thackeray
5.Tristram Shandy by Sterne
6. A Thousand and One Arabian Nights- the Burton translation
7. The Divine Comedy by Dante
8. Botanica-The illustrated A-Z of over 10,000 garden plants and how to cultivate them.
9. Animal Fact Files-Fish by John Dawes
10. Any volume of Will Durant
11. A book on how to make pearl jewelry
12. A book on how to prepare oysters

Booksloth, the dogs are sweeties.

also I want borrow kaelirenee's Dave Barry

#27 I did wonder about taking books I still hadn't read but what if you hate them all? That's why, in the end, I had to go for ones I know I could read again and again.

Almost everyone who's read any of my posts knows how I feel about The Crimson Petal so you have my personal guarantee that you won't regret taking that one at least.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Naked and the Dead
Lord Jim
The Human Stain
The Great American Novel
Catch-22
Complete Short Stories of Chekhov
The Baseball Encyclopedia
A Confederacy of Dunces
The History of the English Speaking People
Huckeberry Finn
The History of Jazz by Ted Gioia

A more serious attempt:

Paradise Lost - because it was enormously satisfying the first time, but it needs a push to get it to the top of my re-reading list.

The Canterbury Tales - for much the same reason

Something big, heavy and German - probably Der Zauberberg because I'm not sure that even a desert island would make me concentrate enough to read Joseph und seine Brüder.

Money in the bank - I need at least one Wodehouse (ninety would be better, but one will have to do), and if I get depressed on my island, I can remember that Wodehouse wrote this lovely light piece of escapism while interned in miserable conditions by the Nazis.

La vie, mode d'emploi - because it has a bit of everything, and I need to keep practicising my French.

The Oxford book of English verse 1250-1918 in case I come over all Rumpole (on a desert island, no-one can hear you declaim...).

Howards End, Kim, Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice - just for comfort-reading.

Thomas Cook's Continental Timetable - different sort of escapism.

#29
Have no fear! I have actually dipped into the majority of these so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. And, because we have all the paper and pens we need, if I didn't like something I would have the means and time to become a literary critic. Another hobby!

We're getting quite a nice little library together already, I think. Not quite sure why Thorold thinks he'll need to practise his French when he's going to spend the rest of his life on a beach sucking coconuts but to each his own.

>33 Booksloth:

Ah, but you're forgetting l'Homme Vendredi: What if a handsome young islander turns up on my beach but paddles off before I can remember how to say "Montez pour regarder mes gravures"...?

...just counted again and saw that I only had 11. So I probably would be able to take Robinson Crusoe after all. But I'm tempted to make my last choice something absurdly camp for a desert island. I won't commit myself yet, but I think it would have to be Firbank, E.F. Benson, or Barbara Pym. Or maybe late Simon Raven...

Don't worry about it Thor! I'll come up and take a peek at your gravures, even though I have no idea what they are (despite the list of possibilities being quite a short one) - and, oh God, just look at that - I've done it again. I'll show you my double entendres if you'll show me your gravures.
(Expecting this to get flagged any minute now.)

Aha! I've just figured out what they are. No good, I'm afraid - you don't get to bring your gravuring equipment with you (though I suppose a twig would do). And now I've done it again. Should I change my name to Britney?

This thread has suddenly gone very quiet, I hope I didn't scare everyone off. Please don't be offended at me coming on to you Thor - I've calmed right down again now (and noticed that it was Homme Friday you were waiting for anyway - oops!)

An interesting hypothetical that does take some thought. Here goes
The Iliad
The Odyssey
War and Peace
The Civil War a Narrative three volumes
Robert Frost Poems, Plays, Prose
The Encyclopedia of World History
Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Hammett Complete Novels
The Intriguers Four superb novels of suspense
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
I realize that the multiple volume books are stretching if not cheating on the premise but I could be on the island for a long time.

I've done this before so I had my list already prepped. I purposefully chose long books and books, such as poetry anthologies or novels with multiple subplots and many characters, that repay rereading.

In no particular order:
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
Don Quixote by Cervantes
V. by Thomas Pynchon
The Metamorphoses by Ovid
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The Manyoshu
Sunflower Splendor: three thousand years of Chinese poetry
The Greek Anthology
The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry
The Lais of Marie de France
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Fortunata y Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós

Wow! Everyone's choices are so much more esoteric than mine - I just wanted a good read!

#40 Please tell me some more about The Greek Anthology, MT, it sounds so much my kind of thing. Is it just poetry or prose as well? Is it written in English or Greek? If the shipwreck happens before I next put in a book order, please can I read yours on the island? As you can see in #24 I'm already taking Cavafy's Ithaka but anything else that reminds me of the country I consider my spiritual home will be more than welcome!

>38 Booksloth:
Don't worry, I've been busy sloth-proofing my treehouse... :-)

(Actually, it's a holiday weekend here and I have visitors to distract me from these erudite exchanges. But I did go to the beach yesterday to try to get into a Crusoe frame of mind!)

Whew! I'm so glad! (What do you mean - sloth-proofing? I might be gorgeous and utterly irresistable for all you know!) I was starting to get terribly worried I'd given real offence there (it's not entirely unknown), so seeing you back here in a happy frame of mind has made my day!

My twelve books would be:

1. The Stand by Stephen King - I know other have chosen it but I might wash up on the other side of the island and I need my own copy.

2. IT by Stephen King - I like to reread this at least once per year.

3. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell - because it's always very satisfying to read.

4. The Book of Wishes and Complaints by Zena Rohan - a long-time favourite and also a satisfying book, though a thin one.

5. Happenstance by Carol Sheilds - A favourite even before I had finished it.

6. The Republic of Love by Carol Shields - Also a favourite before it was finished.

7. The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - because it's lovely.

8. The Post Birthday World by Lional Shriver - because I've been meaning to reread it.

9. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - so I can pretend the desert island is biblical Canaan and Eygpt while I read it.

10. The Father Christmas Letters by JRR Tolkien - because it's so beautiful to read and to look at.

11. Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster - because it comforts me to read it when I am stressed.

12. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - because it makes me laugh and I am so very fond of the Flora and the Starkadders.

And I am sure I saw Booksloth chosing a peice of music somewhere so I am having Faure's Requiem too.

There also better be a supply of dogfood on this island because where I go, Scottie goes. She's packing light though, she's only bringing a chew toy and her cushion but she promises to guard us all from any wild beasties on the island to earn her keep.

Skeelo will be bringing his woolly monkey, my umbrella ('cos he likes carrying it) and a couple of pairs of old socks. He's happy to fish for food and willing to give Scottie some lessons too so I think they'll make a good team.

You say you've been meaning to reread The Post-Birthday World? It's still on my TBR pile and I have to admit I'm putting it off a bit having concluded that We Need to Talk About Kevin was a work of genius (in fact, I might even sneak that one onto the island in my knickers) and then being somewhat disappointed by Double Fault. Is Post-Birthday going to restore my faith?

Ooh, and I hid away a poem too, so you've still got one of those to go!

Only if by being a team you mean that Scottie would avoid the water and bark at Skeelo until he came back out.

The Post-Birthday World is between Kevin and Double Fault on the scale I think, I very much enjoyed it because of the split reality angle but it didn't have the same grip as Kevin did, probably because of the subject in Kevin rather than the writing quality. And it will put the song Snooker Loopy in your head for an unreasonably long time afterwards.

As for the poem, A Subalterns Love Song by John Betjeman has to be the one. Didn't even need to think about that.

I just thought that a poem has to be on a piece of paper and a piece of paper has two sides, so on the other side of mine I'm hastily scribbling The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock too. You're Subaltern's Love Song just reminded me of it.

I think what you're saying is that Scottie will stand guard on the bank doing the job of lookout, while Skeelo is crashing about in the water like a demented seal on ecstasy. Very important job, that.

That's what I meant. For a dog whose legs are only about four inches long, water is a disturbing element and she would warn him perfectly that he was standing in it.

If we get two sides to the paper then I also want A Birthday by Christina Rossetti on mine.

Okay, I've gone from 12 books (which probably should have been 8) to 12 books, two poems and a piece of music. Jody and I are taking our dogs. I've never been very good at knowing when to stop.

I've also realised that I need my photograph box and I'd quite like to take my bed. You get two luxuries on desert island discs don't you?

Two, is it? I'm not sure about that but I suspect our furry friends might count as one. For the other one I'm bringing my harp but I warn you all - I'm not very good. The rest of you might want to bring earplugs as your luxury.

Scottie isn't a luxury, she's a necessity and I'm sure Skeelo counts as one too.

The harp sounds like an exciting luxury, I always wanted to be able to play one but I am not a musical person at all.

Booksloth-
If you get a harp then I get a case of champagne. Perrier-Jouet. You can play and the more I drink the less I'll care what you sound like.

Hey, mstrust - if you care to start offering it around I just might end up sounding fantastic!

Jody, you're right about them being necessities - after all, no-one would expect us to turn up on this island without one of our kidneys now, would they? I'd say Skeelo was on the same level as a kidney, if not higher - there's only one of him!

If we are all stuck on the same desert island, we have the beginnings of a very good library!

My choices would be:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb - if I have to choose only one in the series, I will take my favorite

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - see comment above

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - tradition, I have to read it every Christmas even on a desert island

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart

The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton

A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes - so I can drool over all the books I do not have on my desert island

As for music, I will take the Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach. If I have to pick one in particular, I will take number 3.

You get a poem too (in fact, 2 - one piece of paper; 1 on each side).

You're dead right about the library - almost everyone, so far, is bringing at least one book that I would have loved to bring if I'd had the space or that I've always wanted to read. I think I'm going to be very happy on this island. Can I just suggest that we get a vet to come with us or, failing that, that all we dog-people club together and bring a really good how-to-nurse-your-poorly-dog book too.

I like that we hope for a vet before we hope for a doctor or dentist for ourselves.

I'd let my vet doctor and dentist me. And way before I let my doctor or dentist anywhere near my dog!

No disrespect to my Doctor but I was thinking the same thing.

No, mine neither really - though I can't say the same for other doctors in the past.

My list (I think!) would be;

"Now, Here This" by Daniel V. Gallery
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
Cadillac Jack by Larry McMurtry
"Delilah" by Marcus Goodrich
The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna
"The Shoes of the Fisherman" by Morris L. West
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Adventurer by Mika Waltari
Billy Budd" by Herman Melville
Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant

My two poems
"The Unknown Citizen" by W. H. Auden
and
"Gunga Din" by Rudyard Kipling