Five Must-Have Books if you rwere marooned

[HappyHiker]

In trying to make more room on my overflowing bookshelves, I was trying to figure out which were keepers and which ones I could bear to donate to the Library Friends for their book sale.

So very hard.

Then my mind went on walkabout, as it often does when I'm avoiding the task at hand, and I started wondering what five books I would love to have if I were marooned on a tropical isle:

This is the beginning of my list, first pass:

--Last Gift of Time: Carolyn Heilbrun
--Journal of a Solitude: May Sarton
--Chop Wood Carry Water a Guide to Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life: Rick Fields and Others

and two yet unknown books: one on ocean fishing from shore and one on simple shelter and small water craft building

How about you? Which five books would you long for???

[Polliwog]

The sequel to Pillars of the Earth.
The new Jean Auel book with Ayla and Jondular.
Angle of Repose.
People of the Book
?

[Tradd]

The Penguin Complete Jane Austen
Bible
My prayer book
Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Not sure about the fifth one...maybe The Brothers Karamazov

[Greg44]

[LIST]
The Bible
The Book of Mormon
Thomas Jefferson - A Life -- maybe then I would have a chance to finally finish it!!
Lord of the Flies -- a reminder of we don't want to happen while marooned!
Will have to think about this one...maybe Swiss Family Robinson!

[Rogar]

Ask me at a another time and my coices might be a little different, but I'd go with,

A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean
The Heart of Buddha's Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh
East of Eden - Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
and maybe if marooned, I would finally be able to finish The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong

[HappyHiker]

Ask me at a another time and my coices might be a little different, but I'd go with,

A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean
The Heart of Buddha's Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh
East of Eden - Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
and maybe if marooned, I would finally be able to finish The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong

Such lovely choices!

[Gardenarian]

I would also choose the Complete Jane Austen!
The Lord of the Rings
Sunset Western Garden Book (not good on a desert island, but essential for where I live!)
Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 1
The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe by Christopher Alexander

[catherine]

I love Roger's choices, too--Thich Nhat Hanh, John Steinbeck--two of my favorite authors.

As for my 5:
--The Bible
--I agree with a Thich Nhat Hanh book--maybe Miracle of Mindfulness
--The Diary of Anne Frank
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
--A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson (well, you'd need a chuckle or two if you were marooned)

[HappyHiker]

Bryson is marvelous, isn't he? Not too many authors make me laugh out loud the way he does..so puckish and witty.

[pony mom]

I can only think of three at the moment:

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens--This is my favorite Dickens book. I also have the RSC stage production video of it and it's great having a visual picture of the story. Not that Dickens doesn't describe things well.

The Wind in the Willows---such a nice story and makes me want to have just a few possessions and live in a little hole in the woods.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome---one of the very few books that makes me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've read it.

[reader99]

The Boy Scout Handbook would probably be very handy in that situation....
A Course in Miracles
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Lord of the Rings
...

[pony mom]

I just thought of my fourth book: Rebecca by Daphne DeMaurier.

Maybe my fifth book should be "365 Ways to Prepare Raw Fish"? Being marooned may require more than books for entertaining myself.

[mattj]

Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson
**** Yes: A guide to the happy acceptance of everything. by Wing F. Fing
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - maybe I'd finally figure it out!
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus in the original French even though I don't speak French... it'd keep me occupied.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie... just for the irony.

[The Storyteller]

Marooned? As in I have to take care of myself?

Foxfire
Foxfire 2
Foxfire 3
The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It, by John Seymour
The Good Life, by the Nearings

[earthshepherd]

These are good lists!
My choices would be:
the Bible
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Sherlock Holmes collection
Back To Basics, or some such how-to book

those are all I can think of for must-haves, but I wouldn't mind a stack of good mysteries or some short stories too!

[JaneV2.0]

If there's a book called How To Get the **** Off an Island, I'd go for that one. Otherwise, practical books--maybe a language primer or two. Definitely no fiction.

[Mrs.B]

The Bible
Complete works of Jane Austin
Foxfire book (which ever one said start from scratch)
How to build a raft out of sticks and leaves
Gone with the wind (always wanted to read it, now it looks like I'll have time)

[razz]

The CS Monitor had approached numerous well known writers for their opinion on the best books ever written and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Madam Bovary by Flaubert, Lolita by Nabokov and The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain were the most common choices.

[cdttmm]

Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham
Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Will have to think about a fifth...maybe something practical.

[Tenngal]

all of the James Herriot series.......All Things Wise & Wonderful, etc.

[Greg44]

all of the James Herriot series.......All Things Wise & Wonderful, etc.

Having worked for a veternarian in college - I loved this series. Great choice!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Since most of the books I actually repeatedly turn to are books basically on surviving in society in one way or other, I don't know.

If I am marooned all alone maybe a book on surviving solitary confinement psychologically in addition to the survival books. :P

[JaneV2.0]

Given a supply of pencils and erasers, a book of NY Times crossword puzzles.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

1. The Bible
2. Tuesdays With Morrie (Mitch Albin)
3. Old Songs in a New Cafe (Robert Waller-essays)
4. A basic how-to such as an early Foxfire
5. An unread Louise Perry 3 Pines mysteries