Spamfunet Nanny Forum

Yes she's back ladies and gentlemen...another question from Loreley =)

If you were going to be on a deserted island for a year and could only bring 5 books with you what would they be?
/P

Hm. I'll probably go all literary here, but here's a random selection:

Collected Fictions (Jorge Luis Borges)
Life A User's Manual (Georges Perec)
The Idiot (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
The Black Jacobins (C. L. R. James)
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)

Hmm, hard choice. A year is quite a long time, and my first thought was bringing thick books that last a looong time. At second thought though I picked out the five in the list below cause they all are worth studying and even though some of them aren't that thick they surely take some time to read and understand. Therefore I choose mostly books with some philosophical content and then at least one book that I just could enjoy the story of.


1. The Bible
2. The Satanic Bible - Anton LaVey
3. Discours de la méthode - René Descartes
4. Meaning of Relativity - Albert Einstein
5. Dracula - Bram Stoker

Umm some books that last long enuff I guess.
One would be the Bible, that's tough enough.
Then perhaps some math stuff, some things that I don't really like or have the patience/time for but would be nice to know about. Something related to cryptography, or algorythms/optimization, or some very heavy-weight theoretical stuff about network administration/security that could really help me in my work (and to get more money, of course).
I wouldn't take novels or such because I would read all five in like a week so why bother. I'd just fish instead or something, when I am bored of reading that heavy stuff I brought with me.

Hey, it looks like the thickness of the book is the main feature here, i agree.  :lol:
But i would also choose works that i can read and re-read without getting bored. I would also try to have as different genres as i can.  8)
So:
*The Bible.
*War and Peace.
*The Lord of the Rings (counts for one, doesn't it?).
*The Iliad.

The 5th would be hard choice...
I would go for some great epic work, but which one?
Some titles that come to my mind are
-Orlando Furioso
-El Cantar del mio Cid (the Song of the Cid)
-Don Quixote
-Kalevala
-The Quest for the Graal
All books i had a bite when i was in school but never got the time to read...
...hmmm can you find a trend in this?  :wink:

I don't know exactly what books I'd pick, but I know what kind of books I'd pick:

- Massive books (read, very long).
- Ancient books (very old).
- Theological books that question (not like the Bible, books that makes you think).
- Books about human behaviour.
- Epic journeys (like the stories about ancient greece).

I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing Dante's inferno would be the kind of book I'm looking for. Also The Iliad would probably be on the list as well other stories of ancient greece. Lord of the Rings would also be the kind of reading I'd like, but since I've read it I don't think I'd pick it.

I'd most likely go with those really old 'classics' that you know you should have read, but never got around to.

5?  :cry:

Can I have 10?  :)

If it were 10, then all of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

But if only 5, then:

Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice
The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice
The LOTR Trilogy
Chocolat - much better than the film, as books often are
Ozzy Osbourne's autobiography - it's on my "to read" list

Laysha. xx

As I guess a lot would choose, some important and thought-worthy books, like the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Mahabharata and... Uhm, and finally the whole 'Remo' series (in one gigantic piece).

I would want the Lord of the Rings trilogy (all in one) because (admittedly and also a bit ashamed) I have never read them. I started to but the long descs about killed me so I'd be able to get through them all on the island.
I would also want a book that references the plant and animal life of that island/region and contains some excellent recipes on how to prepare the food found there.
I'm in the middle of 3 different series right now and so I'd want the latest book from each one, hopefully they'd all be released right before my departure. (If I could I would squish all of each series into one book so I could have the whole thing with me but if not then I'd just take the newest one.)
The first is the Harry Potter septology. JK Rowling is such a genius and you don't even realize how much she puts into her stories unless you really research it or you get the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter books.
The second is the Inheritence trilogy. Only the first book Eragon has been published and I'm so excited for the rest. There is no info yet on when Christopher Paolini will put out the second book, titled Eldest.
The third is the the Oracle Prophecies Trilogy by Catherine Fisher. The first book The Oracle Betrayed mixes history with mythology and fantasy to make for an intriguing beginning to the series.

Other series that I would bring if I could squish them into one book would be the Anne series of 8 books (octology in Poogieland since according to the dictionaries neither that or septology is a real word) by L.M. Montgomery and the Pit Dragon trilogy by Jane Yolen. The Prey series by John Sandford is also highly entertaining. I love series because I like to see characters grow and develop over a long period of time instead of just one book.

/P

Paradise lost - John Milton
The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
The Trial - Franz Kafka
The Satanic Bible - Anton LaVey
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (Hey, I'm supposed to survive for a year on this deserted island  :twisted: )

Dune Frank Herbert - My favorite book and I still love reading it even though I have already done so at least 30 times now.

Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Here is a book I read not too long ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I would like another pass on it.

The New Testament - Just something I've been meaning to actually try reading sometime.  I'm sure its full of some great stories.

Swedish/English Dictionary and Grammer guide - If I'm on an Island for a year, I should like to use the time to learn a new language or do something productive.

Survival Guide SAS or something similar - I'm on a deserted island, I think it would be nice to know how to start fires, catch animals and gut them, build shelter, and survive, hehe :)

1) LOTR - group mentality
2) Le Morte d'Authur - In English
3) Worst Case Scenario: Deserted Island Edition - or something like the boy scout's handbook
4) Something with many many soft pages for toilet paper ;)
5) Something with lots of pictures of scantily clad women. ;) ;) ;)

Hey, it seems when thinking of deserted island you all consider survival equipment... I was more thinking something like going to work as a light house guardian, full pantry, emergency radio and so on, but nothing to do for 23 hrs a day ;)

That's what I imagine on a deserted island. :p You should have told me that there would be a nice cabin or whatever and you wouldn't have to fend for yourself. ;) I'd still get the book on the plants/animals of the region with recipes in case I got bored with what I was cooking for myself and wanted to experiment and not die from it. :D

/P

Hmm...I'm with Poogie on two counts.  First I would want to condense
series into one large volume and second I would take the Harry Potter
series...very re-readable always finding something new.  I wouldn't
take just the newest one however because when I read the newest one I
always want to go back and read the ones before it to see what I missed.

The Bible--also re-readable

The first Dune trilogy--mainly because Nil keeps bugging me to read
it and I never have

A collection of differing views on parenting--improve *my* job
performance.

Complete works of Shakespeare--the twists in the language are just fun.

I think some sort of survival guide would be prudent; however, it was
not my first thought and besides that if I've had time to choose which
five books I would take I'm laying in stores for a year or I'm not going!


/Eris

Ladychris:  But what if pirates raid our food stores, or undead doves eat the food or something?  

A back-up plan to ensure survival is always prudent!

5 books? That's just not enough... I'll just put together books of the same series and count them as one  :lol:
LOTR - JRR Tolkien
Ender's Saga - Orson Scott Card
Dune - Frank Herbert
As many books written by Isaac Asimov I can get my hands on  :)
Bored of the Rings, The Soddit and a few more of the same kind  :wink: