If you were stranded on a desert island....

[Melissa B]

Indulge me here :)

What are your five most important, best, favorite, etc. books?

The ones that have most influenced your life or you reread regularly or the ones you would most like to have on a desert insland?

[Kari C in SC]

This is probably not the answer you are looking for... I would desperately need WIFI and a laptop because I really don't like to read anything twice! LOL!

[RoughCollie]

1. The Bible

2. The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel According to John (revised)

3. The Collected Works of Shakespeare

4. A book about how to survive on a deserted island.

5. Bullfinch's Mythology

I don't reread anything except the Bible, but I figure the other 4 books would give me plenty of reading material.


Indulge me here :)

What are your five most important, best, favorite, etc. books?

The ones that have most influenced your life or you reread regularly or the ones you would most like to have on a desert insland?

[Just Me]

1. The Bible
2. Little Women (I don't really know why, except that I love it!)
3. Henry VIII (a novel - huge, and a time filler!)
4. A Dummy's Guide to Survival (for obvious reasons!)
5. A really difficult puzzle book (to keep my mind busy and off the bugs, heat, sand, and bad food!

I will pick up and read just about anything when I am bored. I know there are probably better options, but that is what I came up with in my sad sick state this morning! :(

[Jane in NC]

Indulge me here :)

What are your five most important, best, favorite, etc. books?

The ones that have most influenced your life or you reread regularly or the ones you would most like to have on a desert insland?

Please let me have 17: Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series (6 books), her House of Niccolo series (8 books), and the two handbooks that have been published to help one understand Dunnett's books Oh, and I'd want the complete works of Shakespeare.

I have actually had fantasies of being stranded somewhere with Dunnett's books so that I could read them without interuption! They are beautifully written, but so dense. The handbooks are a necessity to explain the literary and historical references.

So please let me have 17 books and maybe two months of peace and quiet so that I could actually get some reading accomplished!

Jane

[Jean in Newcastle]

1. The Bible

2. "Les Miserables" - Victor Hugo

3. "Oliver Twist" Dickens

4. a book by Elizabeth Goudge

5. a tropical cookbook!

[Jenny in Atl]

I would have to second the WIFI, laptop, and awesome lifetime batteries. That's only three "things" so hummm... I would have to bring Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, a great guide to survival, and complete star gazing anthology.

[6packofun]

I would take...

1. The Bible
2. The Swiss Family Robinson (which happens to be one of my all-time faves AND would help me keep a proper attitude in my situation...hehe)
3. The Riverside Shakespeare
4. A book of poetry OR one of the Norton Anthology of _____ Literature books
5. Any book on edible indigenous plant-life that just happened to apply to the island on which I were stranded!!

[Laura Corin]

Indulge me here :)

What are your five most important, best, favorite, etc. books?

The ones that have most influenced your life or you reread regularly or the ones you would most like to have on a desert insland?

Hard to choose, but some combination of Persuasion, Emma, P&P, Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon. The ones in bold would definitely be with me.

Laura

[DKinTX]

The Bible, The Valley of Vision, Jane Eyre, Adam Bede, and Anne of Green Gables.

[Daisy]

1. The Bible
2. Robinson Crusoe :D
3. Anthology book of poetry
4. Hymn Book
5. How to win friends and influence people. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/silly/smirk.gif (http://www.thesmilies.com) Just kidding.

[Karin]

1. The Bible
2. the very best survival guide for my situation
3. Pride and Prejudice. The only Austen book I really like and the only novel I can read and reread.
4.The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah--it's very long and I've never managed to get throught it (all the volumes in one)
5. I'm just not sure what to put here, as there are so very many books I'd like to read! Had you said 2, it would have been easy, as the first two I would consider requisite.

[Lorna]

This is almost impossible to answer really but it is fun to think about. Maybe:
All the E M Forster books (a cheating, boxed set of them)
Wind in the Willows - to help me through any low points
Northanger Abbey - to make me laugh
Any book by Turgenev
Resurrection by Tolstoy

[Lizzie in Ma]

The ESV study Bible (lots of notes = extra reading)
The LOTR trilogy which I suppose counts as 3
Riverside Shakespeare

[percytruffle]

The Bible (my NKJ Nelson study Bible), How Should We Then Live, a humongous unabridged dictionary, the Norton Anthology of English Literature, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

This is assuming I am stranded alone. If not, I would scratch the Shakespeare and add Please understand me II, my fav book on personality type ;-)

[percytruffle]

I am already pining the loss of my Russian lit I had to leave behind! Not so good to be stranded with though. I little too dark.

[Sharon H in IL]

Well, I'd leave my bible at home and rely on my memory to get me through all those 'valley of the shadow' moments.

Thus:
1. Brothers Karamazov -- I haven't read it, but it's supposed to be good for a lot of thinking. At last I'd have the time and leisure (till I died of a nasty disease or parasitic infection). Maybe I'll be like Snoopy and read one word a day.

2. Complete works of Edmund Burke. An English economic philosopher or philosophical economist, as you will. Everything I've read of his (which isn't much) was so wise and insightful that I'd enjoy getting to know him. He would challenge me to examine my own ideas.

3. Will & Ariel Durant's series "The Story of Civilization." Such wonderful writers, and such a delight to savor their books slowly. Yum. I've read most of the series, but not all.

4. I'm debating here whether to include Karl Marx's Grundrisse. I had to read it in college, and it was a complete and utter waste of my time and the brain power I used on it. Either I was going too fast, I wasn't mature enough, or else it really *is* as opaque as I thought. Nah, I'll forget Marx and go for Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" because I admire Kant, and want to truly understand his philosophy. At this point, it's an admiration based on what other people have said about his philosophy rather than first-hand reading.

5. The Joy of Cooking by Julia Child. For daydreaming of true civilization. My husband brought a copy of this to our marriage. Oh my. What a revelation. My experience of cooking had been handwritten index cards, little pages torn out of women's magazines and clipped from the local paper, and Betty Crocker. Hoo boy.

[Needleroozer]

1. Webster's dictionary
2. Complete works of Shakespeare
3. Complete works of A. A. Milne ie: *ALL* the Pooh stories

[Needleroozer]

1. Webster's dictionary
2. Complete works of Shakespeare
3. Complete works of A. A. Milne ie: *ALL* the Pooh stories
4. The Bible
5. A coffee-table art book of the Impressionists

[Bee]

I thought I was the only one who did.
1.a book about survival techniques specific to wherever I was stranded
2Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study
3.Sophie's World (something to think about)
4.a book about fish
5.a cookbook (something to dream about)