Ten Books to Take to a Desert Island.

Cafe Society
1

As the title says, if you were on a desert island and you could only have ten books, which would you bring? Trilogies/Series count as one, btw

(Thankeesai, Squish…eheeheh!)

  1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame–Victor Hugo(I’d never leave home without my Frollo!)
    2.Tigana–Guy Gaverial Kay(A truly excellent fantasy…)
  2. Dragondoom–Dennis L. Mckeirnan(Sure, it’s cliched, but damnit! It’s GOOD!)
  3. The Lord of the Rings–JRR Tolkein(DUH)
  4. Spring Moon–Betty Bao Lord(Simply beautiful book!)
  5. Cry to Heaven–Anne Rice
  6. The Vampire Chronicles–Anne Rice
  7. Angela’s Ashes–Frank McCourt (Hard to get through because of what happens to him, but excellent!)
  8. The Dark Tower Series–Stephen King
  9. Night–Elie Wisel(Sad as hell, but worth reading again every once in awhile…)
2

In no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Maia by Richard Adams (I think I may very well be the only person on the planet who’s actually read it, but I love it).[/li][li]Shogun by James Clavell (so complicated that you can read it over and over and never quite pick up on everything)[/li][li]Give War a Chance by PJ O’Rourke[/li][li]The Harry Potter opera (counts for four)[/li][li]The Stand by Stephen King[/li][li]The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (whole trilogy in one volume)[/li][li]Lord of the Rings by Tolkein[/li][/ul]

3

The Complete Guide to Surviving On and Escaping from a Desert Island.

Everything else is kindling.

4

Smart all! LOL!

5

I meant smart ASS!!

eheeh

6

Glad you opened this thread, Jurhael! My picks are:

  1. Sandman, Neil Gaiman and various artists - the collected hardcover series - lots of food for thought and I’ve never got tired of rereading it yet.
  2. The Persian Boy, Mary Renault - gotta have some historical softcore fantasy, y’know
  3. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - absolutely hilarious
  4. Illiad, the Fitzgerald translation - good poetry, good story and maybe someday I’d be so bored I wouldn’t skip the ‘naming of the ships’ part
  5. Complete Works, William Shakespeare - what can I say?
  6. Holidays in Hell, P.J. O’Rourke, and
  7. Give War a Chance, P.J. O’Rourke, because the man is a master of cynical humour
  8. Swamp Foetus* (later retitled Wormwood), Poppy Z. Brite; excellently magical horror stories
  9. The Vampire Files, P.N. Elrod - 1930s detective mysteries with vampires! :smiley:
  10. The Cornelius Chronicles, Michael Moorcock - rock’n’roll, fashion, science and the addictive adrenaline stench of fear
7

Here’s my list:

[ol]
[li]Pilot’s Choice, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller[/li][li]Plan B, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller[/li][li]I Dare, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller[/li][li]If marooned after February 2003: Balance of Trade, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, if before February 2003: American Gods, by Neil Gaiman[/li][li]The Adventure of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon[/li][li]Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman[/li][li]Earthclan, by David Brin (contains Startide Rising and The Uplift War)[/li][li]Fletch’s Fortune, by Gregory McDonald (with the option to substitute a different Gregory McDonald book)[/li][li]The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin[/li][li]Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs[/li][/ol]

8

Hmmm, okay I just noticed why I had to go back and add another title…my first one got chopped off somehow. So take off #10 and replace it with Partners in Necessity by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

9

I would use two or three of those selections to bring a good mathematics or physics compedium, something I could use to teach myself the essential tools of the field. 'Cause after all, if you read the same novel over and over it can get a little stale, but these could keep you busy for decades.

10

Something big, sturdy and bouyant.

11

“Something big, sturdy and bouyant.”

Les Miserabes? Or one of Robert Jordan’s books? :wink:

12

Damn. How the HELL did I forget Good Omens? It’s only my favorite book of all time!

13

Not just my favorites (and some good junk fantasy for beach reading), but I’d need some reference books, too. By no means is this a list of the best quality, but just books I think I’d need and books I read often and can’t iamgine living without.

Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien.
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien.
The Dragonlance Chronicles, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The Icewind Dale Trilogy, RA Salvatore.
Druids, Morgan Llywelyn.
The Bachman Books, Steven King.
Complete Works, Shakespeare.
The Bible.
The complete OED.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica.

14

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Winnowill *
**In no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Maia by Richard Adams (I think I may very well be the only person on the planet who’s actually read it, but I love it).[/ul] **[/li][/QUOTE]

No, you’re not, I love it too! (Didn’t like Shardik nearly so much though).

Others already mentioned ; The Persian Boy, but I want The King Must Die as well

Good Omens

Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series (the original trilogy only)

15

Since I’m going to be there for a while, I’m going to want nice long books. I want to specify harcovers for all of these, to be durable since they’re likely to take some damage.

“How to Stay Alive in the Wilderness” seems like a good one to start with.

“Complete Works of Shakespeare,” Norton edition.
“Complete Works of Chaucer,” Riverside edition.
“Les Miserables”
“The New Oxford Annotated Bible,” New Revised Standard version.
“The Norton Anthology of Poetry,” Longer edition.
“The More than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
“The Stand.”
“Rincewind the Wizzard,” out-of-print edition of three early Pratchett novels.
“Ulysses”

16

Jane Austen - Emma
R Adams - Maia
Mary Gentle - Golden Witchbreed
M Renault - The Persian Boy, The King Must Die
Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle
R Heinlein - The Door into Summer
A McCaffrey - Original Dragon trilogy
Gaiman/Pratchett - Good Omens
Pratchett - Discworld series: If I can only take one, then “Guards, Guards”

17

Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook

Edible Wild Plants and Herbs - A Pocket Guide

US Army Survival Manual

Collected Works of William Shakespeare

Norton Anthology of American Literature

Bullfinch’s Mythology

War and Peace

Moby Dick

The Civil War (Shelby Foote’s complete series)

Living Bible

You guys will have alot of interesting things to read as you’re starving.

18

How could I possibly limit myself to 10???

Okay:
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Jane Eyre
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Les Miserables
The Bible
The Book of Mormon
War and Peace
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice

Whew! That was harder than I thought!

19

1 Getting off a desert island for dummies
2 Smokesignals and You
3 So the plane didnt see you?
4 How to build a sailboat out of 2 cocunuts and a pile ofsand
5 So you need a source of methane gas?
6 Geothermal Power on desert islands
7 a laptop that conveniently has “book” in the title
8 Hijacking DSL connections in the south pacific
9 Porno for the abandoned male
10 Desert island plants and their recreational uses.

20

LOL, Pythagoras!

plnnr, I brought lots of food and sea plants in the luggage that wasn’t holding the books. :smiley:

I think it’s interesting that a lot of the same books show up on our lists.