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This shoud be fun; I'd like our membership to speculte on what five books -- fiction and/or nonfiction -- you would take with you if you anticipated a prolonged period of isolation. Im going to exclude one work -- the Bible -- on the assumption that everyone possesses some knowledge of it, or that it would be available. Anything else is "fair game".
My Five
One non-fiction - Willam Least Heat Moon's Blue Highways --An "off the beaten track" picture of non-urban America at the time I was also exploring on my own
aand the rest;
East of Eden - John Steibeck The Great American Novel until somebody bests it, which should take some time. So many Biblical paralells, and so many takes on similar themes, that Hollywood will never successfully encapsulate it.
Go Down Moses - Wiilam Faulkner If Steinbeck's magnum opus can be faulted on any point, it's that there are no major black characters; Faulkner's work covers this base
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay Anorther story for everyone, and set in the overloooked realm of a neutral, but polarized, African country during and after the Second World War
Testimony of Two Men - Taylor Caldwell Partly personal: I found a well-worn copy in a place I'd rented, at a time when I was recovering from a bout with depression -- it helped.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-24-2012 at 04:35 PM..
What a great idea for a thread! And because I am having so much trouble deciding how to get my list down to five, I am going to violate the guidelines and give two:
1. The Best Poems of the English Language edited and compiled by Harold Bloom. This is 950 pages of Bloom's choices starting with Chaucer and ending with Hart Crane (about 1932). It includes brief biographical sketches of each poet selected and headnotes for the more important poems. It is something to come back to again and again - perfect for that desert island.
"The Oxford Book of English Verse" would be first choice - have to think about the other four. Perhaps a complete Shakespeare...and a good book on desert island survival.
"The Oxford Book of English Verse" would be first choice - have to think about the other four. Perhaps a complete Shakespeare...and a good book on desert island survival.
1) Ditto plus
2) Battle Cry by Leon Uris
3) Something very funny such as Terry Pratchett or Christopher Fowler to cheer me up
4) How To S**t in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer (an environmental approach to living in the wild)
1. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
2. SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea by John Wiseman
3. 1984 by George Orwell
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Paradise Lost by John Milton (just because I'd have plenty of time on my hands)
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee Our Crowd - Stephen Birmingham The Unit - Ninni Holmqvist The Wall - Marlen Haushofer The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley
Dune - Frank Herbert In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson The Silkie - A.E. Van Vogt The Bible Moby Dick - I'd probably end up using it to start a fire, but for years I've tried for the patience to finish it
For avid readers, this is a very tough one!
I'll avoid using compilations or collected works: Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakhov Istanbul - Orhan Pamuk One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A tough one. I only know for sure, the Bible. And I'd want some kind of book on surviving, a poetry anthology and maybe a Dostoevsky and some North American book to remind me of home.
1) The Ultimate Guide to U.S. Army Survival Skills, Tactics, and Techniques - by Department of the Army (I picked it because of the "ultimate" in the title. )
"Drawing from dozens of the U.S. Army’s official field manuals, editor Jay McCullough has culled a thousand pages of the most useful and curious tidbits for the would-be soldier, historian, movie-maker, writer, or survivalist—including techniques on first aid; survival in the hottest or coldest of climates; finding or building life-saving shelters; surviving nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks; physical and mental fitness, and how to find food and water anywhere, anytime. With hundreds of photographs and illustrations showing everything from edible plants to rare skin diseases of the jungle, every page reveals how useful Army knowledge can be."
But, I guess the Navy is going to have to show me how to build a boat, sooo...
2) The U.S. Navy SEAL Survival Handbook: Learn the Survival Techniques and Strategies of America's Elite Warriors
3) The Complete Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
4) 1984 - George Orwell
5) Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
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