Woo! list time:-)
In no particular order:
Slaughterhouse 5
Sirens of Titan
mmm…
Little Prince
Tolkien trilogy
Hocus Pocus, almost forgot that one.
Once and Future King
lalala Gosh
Oh yeah!
Marcian Chronicles
The October Country
The Space Odyssey trilogy
and the Bible I suppose.
So its more then 10, what do you want, my blood?
Here we go.
[ul]
[li]The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (translated)[/li][li]Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov[/li][li]The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath[/li][li]Catch-22 by Joseph Heller[/li][li]Dune by Frank Herbert[/li][li]A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess[/li][li]The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (translated)[/li][li]Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh[/li][li]The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe[/li][li]The Complete Works of Arthur Rimbaud (translated)[/li][/ul]
Great topic, Eve. I’ve been pondering my second ten.
I’ve also been considering how to deal with this question in a pragmatic manner. I mean, life is crazy, surreal – anything can happen (Anything Can Happen by the Papashvily’s, definitely to be included on my second ten.) I actually could end up on a desert island, right.
So, being a prototypical Eagle Scout, my motto is “Be Prepared”. How, how can I prepare for this eventuality? For me, reading material isn’t just a nicety – it’s a necessity. Believe me, I’ve been reduced to reading the Yellow Pages in culturally disadvantaged hotel rooms throughout this great land of ours. I must have reading material.
Thankfully, the march of technology has saved me from a island existence devoid of literary stimulation. I’ve been carrying a wondrous little device around in my pocket for weeks now – a handheld computer with 8 megabytes of memory. All ten of my must haves could be stored as 1’s and 0’s and toted around on my hip. I could keep my literary treasures with me always (well, the Gibbon might chew up a little silicon, but everything else should fit.)
I’ll do it! I can only encourage you all to protect yourselves in the same manner.
Be prudent! Carry your top ten around without. Who knows when you could go on a three hour tour and end up eating coconut cream pies next to the lagoon without a well-turned phrase or a pithy insight to enjoy! Emulate Roy Hinkley! Take your books with you wherever you go!
Okay, to pare it down to 10, I added some private rules for myself, including a limit of 1 per author and a limit to SF/fantasy.
In no particular order:
-The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide (Hitchhiker through So Long and Thanks, plus the Zaphod short story, it’s in one volume, so it counts as one book), Douglas Adams
-The Callahan Chronicals (Yes, that’s how the title is spelled, Callahans Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash and Callahan’s Secret and it’s in one volume also, so it counts as one book), Spider Robinson
-Fletch Forever (Fletch, Confess, Fletch and Fletch’s Fortume. Again one volume = one book), Gregory McDonald
-The End of the Game (Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter and Jinian Star-eye. One volume = one book), Sheri S. Tepper
-either Jhereg or Taltos, Steven Brust or else one of the Fuzzy novels
-either Ellen Foster or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Geez, Nacho, I didn’t need any more to add, you know 
)
-Thursday’s Children, Rumer Godden
-The Bean Trees. Barbara Kingsolver
-Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
-either Pride and Prejudice or To Kill a Mockingbird (dekayx, see my comment to Nacho)
And I still couldn’t cut it down to ten.
How the hell would I know? I thought the best books were the ones you haven’t read yet
EVE, it was Steven King’s ‘IT’
MARLITHARN, I hated ‘Catcher in the rye’. I just don’t get it.
‘Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy’ seems to have made the most lists.
Oooh, Spud, do you have “eyes” for me?
Spooje, as far as "It"s go, gimme Elinor Glyn over Stephen King any day . . .
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Dune by Frank Herbert
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Like the Lions Tooth by Marjorie Kellog
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Red Dragon (Having a brain fart on this one, he also wrote Silence of the Lambs.)
Trinity by Leon Uris
Needs2know
I believe that was Thomas Harris who wrote Red Dragon.
The ten books I would want with me when I get stranded on a desert island would be(in no particular order):
Sorry, if I broke the rules…but I just gotta have all these books!!!
-LiZa JaNe
Not in order:
Looking over my list, I’m amazed at how many authors are women and how many are Scottish/Irish/British.
A Clockwork Orange… Anthony Burgess
Breakfast of Champions… Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse V… Kurt Vonnegut
The Little Prince… Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Alchemist… Paulo Coelho
The Pilgrimage… Paulo Coelho
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew… Dr. Seuss
Galapagos… Kurt Vonnegut
1984… George Orwell
Matters of Light and Depth… Ross Lowell
PunditLisa, I love your choices. I left off the Clan of the Cavebear series after vol. III – you’re right, it was getting too long! I guess I wasn’t as dedicated as you to keep on with it. Did Ayla ever reunite with her firstborn son? (I know, I’m too lazy to go and read it myself!)
Pugluvr, last we checked, Ayla was pregnant and they had traveled back to Jondalar’s village. No reunion with Dirk (sp?) yet, though I’m anticipating a clash among the two species soon.
Auel hasn’t written a new book in over 10 years, and she’s getting older, so we may NEVER know what she wanted to have happen…
Luckily Gabaldon’s new book is due in early 2001 and the new Harry Potter is coming out soon, too, I think.
Yes, I know, I’m cheating. But I had a list of honorable mentions to begin with…
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Catcher in the Rye
And, thanks to people who brought all these up somehwere in the thread…
Jitterbug Perfume
Watership Down
The (soon-to-be) trilogy by George R. R. Martin (thanks for reminding me of that one, AuntiePam!)
The Anne of Green Gables books
Swan Song (this one is as good as The Stand, but not nearly as well-known)
About half of PunditLisa’s list (I love the Herriot books, The Thorn Birds, Circle of Friends, and the Clan of the Cave Bear series)
I would have thought that putting Rand right next to Kant would cause an explosive hypergolic reaction. Maybe we should put Plato and Camus between them, just to be safe…