# What book would you choose? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2000, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822 "2000-07-07T03:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MagicalSilverKey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MagicalSilverKey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicalSilverKey)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/1 "2000-07-07T03:52:33Z")
If you were stranded alone on an island, until death, what ONE book would choose to have with you, and why? I think I am gonna have to go with The Bible, KJV. For helping to maintain sanity, morale, intellectual stimulation, faith, the will to live, and the strength to die. However, it seems that a field survival manual would be a close tie. (Some would say the Bible _ **is** _ a survival manual, but that’s another thread, another forum.) “Hmmm is _that_ snake poisonous? Let’s see if Genesis chapter 9 says anything. Nope” hiiisssssssss :::strike:::: oops…thud ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/2 "2000-07-07T06:23:53Z")
If I was bringing a book simply to bring a book (not because I need it to provide survival information) I would likely bring the thickest volume of the Encyclopedia Britanica. Let’s face it. I would be completely bored by any book within a month. Might as well bring something that would take a while to read. I am very well read, I have read thousands and thousands of books. But I can probably count on two hand the number of books I have read more than once, I just don’t understand people that can read the same book over an over again. In the desert island scenario I would probably just not take **any** book as it would just remind me what I was missing. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/3 "2000-07-07T07:42:48Z")
There are a few books I can, and have, read over and over. The Stand and Gone With the Wind, among various others. That being said, I would take my “quad”. It’s The Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, all together. Sure, technically it’s 4 books, but they are all together in ONE book. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/4 "2000-07-07T07:47:22Z")
The euell gibbons library, all together in one fat volume, both survival & entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/5 "2000-07-07T08:15:21Z")
**One** book? I’d go crazy! It’d have to be a very thick one and would have to be really good… so I don’t know… I’m a fast reader too so with all the time I’d have on the island (after doing what I needed to survive) it wouldn’t take me all that long… I mean endless hours of time to fill… and when I can read an average novel in a couple hours I would be reading that book possibly several times a DAY nevertheless imagine in a week. I would get tired of it pretty quick. So I guess I would go with the Bible… heck maybe then I would even read the lists instead of skimming over them like I usually do! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JBurton99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea5d25/32.png) [@JBurton99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBurton99)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/6 "2000-07-07T08:30:13Z")
Hmmm, 1001 ways to prepare coconuts and make clothes from the shells. 😃 Honestly though, i think i would pick Dragon Riders of Pern. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/7 "2000-07-07T08:44:33Z")
Ohhh can I change? I think I might go with **JBurton99** ’s answer actually. I love those books! ---
**Author:** ![realidad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@realidad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realidad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/8 "2000-07-07T09:24:34Z")
ONE book is a hard ask, but I think it would have to be Catch 22. It surprises me evertime I read it again and always makes me laugh. Maybe if I took War and Peace though, I would actually get through it. (Otherwise there would be lots of sleeping on that island) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/9 "2000-07-07T13:53:59Z")
Desert island? Only one book? It would have to be “Final Exit,” then . . . ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/10 "2000-07-07T14:26:39Z")
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, bound in one large volume. I could read it every day, and it would always give food for thought and flights of fancy. ---
**Author:** ![Buddy\_Holly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Buddy\_Holly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buddy_Holly)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/11 "2000-07-08T01:15:23Z")
Some sort of encyclopedia would be the most useful, but when it comes down to fictional entertainment I’d bring Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, bound in one large volume with The Hobbit. Not only is this long, it lets you escape into a whole different world, which could help with the psychological difficulties of isolation. I mean, you’d probably go insane, but if you go insane what’s a better place to hallucinate being in then Middle-earth? That’s my view anyway. ---
**Author:** ![fredicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@fredicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fredicus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/12 "2000-07-08T22:06:01Z")
Fan though I am of Anne McCaffrey, I definately have to go with " Time Enough for Love " ( Heilein ) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/13 "2000-07-08T23:51:14Z")
A really big, complete, unabridged, dictionary, even one with other languages if I could find it. As Hawkeye Pierce pointed out on an Episode of M_A_S\*H “All the other books are in it.” ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2000, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/14 "2000-07-09T09:02:06Z")
Complete Works of Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2000, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/15 "2000-07-09T09:41:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TroubleAgain \* > \*\*Complete Works of Shakespeare. \*\* Seconded. But it has to be an annotated version–I don’t want to be on the island and wonder what some “ye olde English word” I’d never heard of means. I’d also consider Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare or Issac Asimov’s History of The World. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2000, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-would-you-choose/24822/16 "2000-07-09T17:46:58Z")
I would have to pick _Time Enough For Love_ also.