OK, let’s take this up a notch from the “Favorite Movies” thread. These are not the ten BEST books, just the ones you’d take to that desert island. I am playing fair and not choosing my own—so, Ike, you mustn’t pick any you edited, OK?
In no particular order—
Collected “Variety” Obituaries—great readin’, thousands of miniature biographies
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Anita Loos)—very funny flapper diaries
Vile Bodies (Evelyn Waugh)—I STILL say it’s the best Waugh!
New York Then and Now—great photo collection
Little Me (Patrick Dennis)—hilarious “autobiography”
The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius)—'nuff said
My Way of Life (Joan Crawford)—the height of camp, and I do love Joannie
Little Dorrit (Chas. Dickens)—that and Old Curiosity Shop are my fave Dickens
Now, Voyager (Olive Higgins Prouty)—best tear-jerker ever written
Emma (Jane Austen)—My fave Austen
I’ve left a lot out, of course . . . But I’ll bet I’m the only person to have Suetonius and Joan Crawford on the same list! I’m nothin’ if not eclectic.
Good gravy, Eve, only ten? Itll take me a while to pare it down - how long to I have to get back to you? When I moved to Denmark, planning to be here for only a year, I took THREE BOXES of books with me! AND had some more shipped over once I got here!
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Titan by John Varley
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow
Last Call by Tim Powers
Staroamer’s Fate by Chuck Rothman
Silence of the Lambs
Jurrasic Park
The Glitter Dome
A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
The gang that couldn’t shoot straight
It
Catch 22
Dave Barry slept here
The Godfather
The Heaven’s Command trilogy by Jan Morris;
4&5 Two (but I can’t decide) volumes of Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien;
Para Handy Tales by Neil Munro;
Alice in Wonderland/Alice’s Adventures through the Looking-glass by Lewis Carrol, to keep me sane;
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies: all Canadians stranded on desert islands are compelled by law to a minimum Canadian Content level;
The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussel because it’s so damn brilliant;
To be practical, The SAS Survival Handbook.
Scarlet Pimpernel: three boxes?! You have my sympathy. I have nearly 30 huge Rubbermaid ™ boxes in my storage area, plus four bookcases’ worth in the apartment. This is why I will probably never move, and eventually be found dead one day under 500 pounds of books…
Eve; I have something no Joan fan should be without; if I were to send this to you c/o EW, do you think it would arrive, or would it get pinched by Joe the mailroom boy?
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Godfather
Ball Four
Profiles in Courage
Atlas Shrugged
North Dallas Forty
Huckleberry Finn
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Roots
Something by Stephen King - lets go with Dolores Claiborne
Aside from How to Build a Raft out of Seashells and other survival guides, which I would definitely find useful if I were stranded, I would take the following solely for reading pleasure:
The OED
Hawaii by James Michener
Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire by Rousseau
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
The Little, Brown Handbook
A couple good foreign language textbooks
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
By the way, Rodd, GREAT selection of some of my favorite authors, too—Jan Morris, S.J. Perelman, Lewis Carroll, Robert Graves—I could easily survive on YOUR desert island, too!
Great topic, Eve! Let’s see if I can control myself and choose only ten.
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas), unabridged.
The Three Muskateers (Alexandre Dumas)
Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens)
The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
The Plague (Albert Camus)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
A prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
One of Robertson Davies’ trilogies, not sure which today
Ask me again tomorrow and I may come up with an entirely different list.
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods - Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
The Great Dialogues of Plato
East of Eden, Steinbeck Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck Crime and Punishment, Dostoevski Lolita, Nabakov The Stranger, Camus Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway
and some lighter stuff,
Confederacy of Dunces, Toole Geek Love, Dunn The Lazlo Letters, Novello
*The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock *, Robbins
I would bring:
[ol]
[li]ELOISE by Kay Thompson. (what can I say, I’m obsessed.)[/li][li]Fifth Business by Roberson Davies (and I’m an American!)[/li][li]A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving[/li][li]The Bible (I’m not religious, but it’s chock-full of good drama.)[/li][li]Tao Te Ching. (see above)[/li][li]Ulysses by James Joyce (Hey, I’d have plenty of time to get through it, wouldn’t I?)[/li][li]Complete Works of Shakespeare, if I’m allowed. If not, just Hamlet.[/li][li]Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung[/li][li]Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. (the most simplistic explaination of Freudian superego/ego/id theory around. And makes me feel 5 again.)[/li][li]A diary [/ol][/li]
I like my list.
Eve, until now, I was the only one I knew who read Gentlemen Prefer Blonds. I think it’s the funniest book written. I read it last year (not for the first time) on the plane on my way to Paris just to get psyched up. And if your edition has the original Ralph Barton cartoons in it — wow!
Here’s my list:
Of Mice And Men – Steinbeck. A diamond of a book.
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen. MY fave Austen.
A Year In Provence – Peter Mayle. Lightweight stuff, but it’s a vacation in a book.
Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories – Gene Shepherd – R.I.P., Gene.
Ringworld – Larry Niven. Got me started on tech, physics, etc. Let’s include Ringworld Engineers under this heading, but not Ringworld Throne, thank you.
The Good Earth – Pearl Buck. Bound feet, anyone?
Shogun – forget author’s name, but good stuff.
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell – R.I.P., Gerry.
Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck. Can’t read it very often, too heartbreaking and gripping. That goes for watching the film, too.
Lord of the Rings trilogy – Tolkien. I know, I know, it’s cliched, but excellence is a good way to get to be a cliche. Besides, there’s a movie coming out from New Zealand that doesn’t look half bad. Elijah Wood (Elliott from E.T.) as Frodo.