Books to bring on a deserted island.

[jacob]

You know the drill(*) ...

Just to make it more interesting than "I'll bring my one holy book", give us your top three. And skip the "How to survive on a deserted island"-writs presuming that knowledge is known.

(*) If not, I guess we're looking for books that can be read again and again... an endless source of the x-factor, whatever x is.

PS: Book series are okay.

The why's of this drill is to find books that are worth rereading multiple times ...

[jacob]

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Five-Rings-M ... 1590302486
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physi ... 716703440/

[chenda]

The Decline and fall of the Roman Empire (8 volumes)
Churchhill''s The Second World War (5 volumes)
London Recollected (6+ volumes)

I inherited these titles and they sit on my bookshelf yearning to be read but I'm not sure I would ever make the time to read them.

We need a separate thread for Desert Island Discs

[7Wannabe5]

"World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time"
"Moby Dick"
"The Essential P.G. Wodehouse Collection"

This is my first attempt, given that I am likely to be stranded for around 10 years, not just for a year or two, and not until I die.

[wizards]

These I have read several times (and in both English/Danish translations) and I know I will enjoy reading them again:

Haruki Murikami: The Wind-Up Bird Cronicle
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment

[jennypenny]

This is such an impossible question for me to answer.

If I could only take three books to pass the time, they would be Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Stephen King's It, and Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. They cover the basics for me. If I could sneak one more, I'd bring Beowulf. And maybe a Highlander-type romance.

edit: If you stoics start listing stuff like Meditations, then I get to bring my holy book, too.

[KevinW]

Hmm...

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Gowers et al. Ed.
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition core books (3 volumes)

[jacob]

"Moby Dick"

Wait, what?! A long treatise on 18th century whaling techniques overlaid with a short story about vengeance?

PS: I probably missed the point.

[Chad]

Dune (I guess the entire series. Just because we are on an island, but not because the rest of the series is that great.)

The Ender series of books (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hagemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Shadows in Flight, Ender in Exile)

Uplift Saga by David Brin (Sundiver, Startide Rising, Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shores, Heaven's Reach)

I see no reason to bring non-fiction considering I'm stuck on an island with minimal resources and I already know how to use them all (per the initial parameters). I guess philosophy could be an option, as I will have a lot of time to think. However, considering all I have is time, I might as well come up with all of it on my own.

[7Wannabe5]

Jacob said: Wait, what?! A long treatise on 18th century whaling techniques overlaid with a short story about vengeance?

PS: I probably missed the point.

I chose Melville for his craftsmanship. The theme of the novel does not hold particular relevance for me. (lol)

But as for Queequeg—why, Queequeg sat there among them—at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle. To be sure I cannot say much for his breeding. His greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him, and using it there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it, to the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the beefsteaks towards him. But that was certainly very coolly done by him, and every one knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly.

Anytime I encounter a piece this well-hewn, I have to pause to savor and offer silent applause, so that makes a long book last even longer.

[DSKla]

Ron Swanson on Moby Dick. http://i.imgur.com/qcjMSsZ.png

[walker]

Anytime I encounter a piece this well-hewn, I have to pause to savor and offer silent applause, so that makes a long book last even longer.

Yes, this! Bonus points if time on the desert island can be used to retell Moby-Dick in the style of P.G. Wodehouse.

My selections:

- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman & Sussman.
- The Botany Coloring Book, by Young & Giuffre. Will happily add The Zoology Coloring Book and The Anatomy Coloring Book if they can be defined as part of a series.
- Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction, ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman

[steelerfan]

Dark Tower Series - Stephen King
The C Programming Language K&R
Dungeon and Dragons 5e Core Rulebooks

[7Wannabe5]

So, I walked to the library yesterday to check out a book by P.G. Wodehouse, because replying to this thread made me remember that I always like to read Wodehouse in the summer when it is hot. Then I was solicited for prostitution on my way home, even though I was dressed appropriately for a visit to the library (hair in bun, pink and white seersucker blouse, black patent leather Birkenstocks.) Of course, this is a valid example of how it can be more difficult to live an independent life of frugality if you are female, and I was pretty annoyed, but then I thought it was kind of interesting because it is possible that I am the only person who ever had those two experiences in such close conjunction.

[Chad]

Dungeon and Dragons 5e Core Rulebooks

We need dice!

[jennypenny]

At least that (D&D) is a game. What's with all of the textbooks?? It's a deserted island people, not prison. I'm dumping Beowulf and the Brothers K and bringing the Kama Sutra instead to liven things up.

[jacob]

Okay, I'll dump Gravitation and bring Lord of The Flies

[jennypenny]

Haha, now you're talking. Maybe we can talk someone into bringing The Joy of Home Distilling and then we can really have some fun.

[Spartan_Warrior]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRCq41S0i3M

[C40]

At least that (D&D) is a game. What's with all of the textbooks?? It's a deserted island people, not prison. I'm dumping Beowulf and the Brothers K and bringing the Kama Sutra instead to liven things up.

Funny - I had assumed I would be stranded alone on this deserted island and it took your Kama Sutra choice to point out that others would assume they are not alone on the island.