# Desert Island Books, Videos, Recordings - The Dharma Initiative **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554 "2010-06-17T15:06:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/1 "2010-06-17T15:06:46Z")
Okay, you’ve been recruited to go off to an isolated island for the forseeable future, probably years, and you’ll be more or less cut off from mainstream society - like the Dharma Initiative on _Lost_. They provide everything you need, Dharma brand beans, clothes, automobiles - the works. However, in order to keep everybody at maximum happiness, they’d like you to suggest / order up to five suggestions for each of the major entertainment genres (TV series, Books, Music, Movies, Video games etc.,) for use in the rotating Dharma library, and playing over the local DTV network. What are your picks? \*This part of the scenario is so that you don’t need to bring ‘_The complete works of Dickens_’ on the grounds that it’ll double for toilet paper, and you can take shelter under it. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/2 "2010-06-17T15:42:04Z")
Books- The Island in the Sea of Time trilogy and the Dies the Fire series by SM Stirling Robert Heinlein’s “juvenile” novels The library of Dean Koontz novels. Sure, a lot of them suck, but there are enough of them that I can enjoy re-reading over and over that they could keep me busy for a long time. The library of Larry Niven novels. The books of Carl Sagan. TV Shows: The complete first and only season of Firefly (along with the Serenity movie). The complete series of Life, the NBC detective show. The complete series of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles The miniseries Band of Brothers The miniseries Generation Kill. Movies: The Lord of the Rings trilogy Jaws Casablanca Groundhog Day The Outlaw Josey Wales Music: The complete collections of the albums of- Led Zepplin The Police Van Halen Dire Straits 38 Special ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/3 "2010-06-17T15:57:52Z")
OK, cheating like a mofo: Books: _The Story of Civilization_ by Will and Ariel Durant _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition by James G. Frazer _Tao Te Ching_ by Lao-Tzu \*Preacher \*by Garth Ennis _The Master and Margarita_ by Mikhail Bulgakov --if I’m really stuck on a desert island, maybe I can figure the damn thing out Movies: _The Usual Suspects_ _Apocalypse Now_ _Caddyshack_ _The Searchers_ _The Seventh Seal_ CDs: _The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane_ _The Essential Bruce Springsteen_ _The London Years_ by The Rolling Stones _Horowitz Plays Rachmaninoff_ _The Chess Box_ by Willie Dixon TV Series: _M_A_S_H\* _Dexter_ _True Blood_ _Dr. Who_ – the Tom Baker years _The L-Word_ ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/4 "2010-06-17T16:02:11Z")
Remember, there are going to be lots of people on the island, and we’re assembling a library, so you don’t necessarily have to pick, for example: The Complete Miles Davis over a gem like \*\*\*Kind of Blue. \*\*\*. Funny, I hadn’t read **StuBlue** ’s music choices when I wrote the above. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/5 "2010-06-17T16:08:47Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Remember, there are going to be lots of people on the island, and we’re assembling a library, so you don’t necessarily have to pick, for example: The Complete Miles Davis over a gem like \*\*\*Kind of Blue. \*\*\*. > > Funny, I hadn’t read **StuBlue** ’s music choices when I wrote the above. Yes, but considering that the good people at Columbia went to the trouble of putting the above together, it would be a shame to leave it off 🙂 I’ve done this sort of thing before, and it’s usually assumed that certain books are already there, such as the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. However, I honestly cannot see myself bringing either if I had to cut my list to five. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/6 "2010-06-17T16:12:30Z")
Yup. I just didn’t want anyone to feel they had to go for a massive ‘collected edition’ thing if there were other, more specific things they’d like. For instance, I’d want _Moby Dick_, but I can live without Billy Budd. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/7 "2010-06-17T16:30:15Z")
TV shows _BtVS Night Court Babylon 5_ Music _Take Five_ - Dave Brubeck Quartet (if the Island kills me, “40 Days” is the last thing I want to hear.) _Born To Run_ - Bruce Springsteen _Symphony 9_ - Beethoven - Berlin Philharmonic, von Karajan conducting, Deutsche Grammaphon recording 1973 _Pet Sounds_ - Beach Boys Books _Nightwatch_ - Terry Pratchett (in fact, add on the omnibus editions that include all the Watch books and all the Witches books) _100 Years of Solitude_ - Gabriel García Márquez Previous posters have covered my essentials for the library already ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desert-island-books-videos-recordings-the-dharma-initiative/543554/8 "2010-06-24T19:10:53Z")
I’m bumping this up–I’ve always found it a wonderful exercise. Though I’m wondering: Has it been done to death on this board? I haven’t seen it, but like the cassowary, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.