Ian's Idea of Desert Island Books.

[Ian The Poet]

Ian's Idea of Desert Island Books.

On my desert island instead of taking records/CDs you have to take 8 books, 1 record/CD, and 2 luxuries. Here's mine:

The World of Jeeves. (Jeeves and Wooster anthology.) PG Wodehouse.
The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
The Millenium Trilogy. (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.) Stieg Larsson. (This is my current Read.)
A Merton Reader: Various writings of Thomas Merton.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom. TE Lawrence.
'All I Ever Wrote' - The Complete Works. Ronnie Barker.

My record/CD: The Planet Suite of Holst.

Luxuries: A box of pencils and stacks of paper.

On the original programme you took the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible.

Well I would take a modern translation of the Bible, and instead of Shakespeare I would take 'The Definitive Visual Guide to Art,' it is a book with over 600 pages of paintings.

Well that is my selection, I wonder if that reveals anything about me.
What would other forum members take, give it a go I found it fun trying to limit my selection to such a small number, I could of named hundreds of books. Go on give it a go.

[Henry P]

Good idea for a game, Ian.
I would take Shakespeare, though, and a copy of the four Gospels from the King James Bible. Other books- Milton's Paradise Lost, Joyce's Ulysses, the most beautiful and comprehensive atlas to remind me of the rest of the world, the best single-volume encyclopedia, a Beatrix Potter collection and of course a guide to survival on a desert island.
Music? Mozart's Magic Flute opera
and I agree about the paper and pencils, though a machete would be more useful

[zootsuitmod]

Books:
Larousse Gastronomique
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde
Summoned by Bells - Betjeman
Lambretta Workshop Manual
SS-GB - Len Deighton
The War Memoirs - Spike Milligan
A Christmas Carol - Dickens
Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes

CD: You are the quarry - Morrissey
Luxuries: Soft Toilet Paper

[smorzando]

To be honest, I'd completely stuff the books and music, and trade it for more useful survival materials. But, following these rules:

my books:
Robin Hood
The short stories of Edgar Allen Poe
a book of inspirational quotes
Trickster's Choice -- Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Queen -- Tamora Pierce
A Tale of Two Cities
Two spiral bound, A1 sized notebooks (preferrably fat ones, made of waxed paper and the cover has to be plastic.)

record/cd: Black Clouds and Silver Linings -- Dream Theater

luxuries:
a BIG roll of glad wrap (those commercial sized rolls, with those easy-to-slice slidey things on the box)
A leatherman supertool (it has to be SHARP)

[DDG]

Books:
Paradise Lost
Works of Byron
Works of Shelley
A biography of Byron (not sure which, probably Benita Eisler's)
Dante's Inferno
Hearing is Itself Suddenly a Kind of Singing by Simon Perril
Romney Marsh by Godwin and Ingrams
The Southern Fells by Alfred Wainwright

CD:
I've no idea how I'd manage to choose just one, I guess it would have to be something I'd never tire of. I'd probably have to choose from: 'Frontiers' or 'Trial by Fire' by Journey, or 'In The Nightside Eclipse' by Emperor, or something classical.

Luxuries:
My own Collected Poems ;)
and a pair of slippers.

[k2hsharpe]

dunno if i'd cope on your desert island ...
would go quietly mad

I'm afraid i would head for that little island just off to the left of yours, and i'd take ...

Brain Sex, cos it changed the way i interact with the world
Riotous Assembly, cos i laugh hard everytime i read it
The World Of Baroque 4 CD set, cos i never tire of this one
a bottle of Glen Fiddich just because
and last but not least ...
..... 2 X 6 oz bottles of Nembutal cos why else would i maroon myself on a desert island unless it was time ???

[Jermac]

The books I would take are these:
1. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
2. The Bible
3. The Complete Works of the Classical Greek Dramatists
4. The Complete Works of John Milton
5. The Complete Works of Dostevsky
6. The Complete Works of Tolstoy
7. The Mahabharata
8. The Complete Works of Dante

The one CD I would take is The Total Works Of Bach

The two luxuries I would take are matches and paper

[Alfred von MacDougal]

The Southern Fells by Alfred Wainwright

Glad someone liked it! Just make sure you spell my name right, I worked hard on that book :bleh: