Desert Island Books.

Abrasax

So you're about to be marooned on a desert island but you can take any five books you want with you.
Mine would be....

1) SAS Survival Handbook -for practical reasons
2) Oxford Book of English Verse -plenty of diverse poetry, hard to get bored with, all of life is there.
3) The Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson -I'm cheating a bit here, it's really 3 books, but I'd argue it was one, just to get my hands on 3000+ pages of sumptuous historical fiction.
4) Light on Pranayama -something spiritual to keep my head in check.
5) Playboy: 50 Years:The Photographs -something to fap to.

PeterIanStaker

1.The Commando Survival Manual - obviously
2. LOTR - Never get tired of it.
3. Nineteen Eighty Four- another one I never get tired of.
4.How to make your own Booze from Coconuts & Other Desert Island Stuff
5. Men are from Mars, Man Friday is from . .?

MagicMarker

Abrasax wrote: »

So you're about to be marooned on a desert island but you can take any five books you want with you.
Mine would be....

1) SAS Survival Handbook -for practical reasons
2) Oxford Book of English Verse -plenty of diverse poetry, hard to get bored with, all of life is there.
3) The Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson -I'm cheating a bit here, it's really 3 books, but I'd argue it was one, just to get my hands on 3000+ pages of sumptuous historical fiction.
4) Light on Pranayama -something spiritual to keep my head in check.
5) Playboy: 50 Years:The Photographs -something to fap to.

Boooooooooooooorrrringgg.

My name is URL

The Idiots Guide to.. getting off Islands

Donkey Oaty

I'd bring five copies of Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal" as I wouldn't feel bad about using them as toilet paper.

brummytom

A big inflatable book
Two very long, thin wooden books

Sonovagun

The Ray Mears Pop-up raft book!

Elliemental

1) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
2) Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
3) The Fall - Albert Camus
4) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams*
5) A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel.


* Are you allowed to bring such a book? It is a trilogy in four parts, afterall!

Abrasax

Elliemental wrote: »

* Are you allowed to bring such a book? It is a trilogy in four parts, afterall!

Mostly harmless.
It'll pass.

kjl

1-4 the twilight saga
5. How to cope with being completely retarded.

Biggins

I'd just bring my ereader (which at present will hold 10,000+ books) and a solar powered socket (for recharging).

It would have every book for hopefully every situation needed - and that includes for boredom and emergencies.

Problem solved.

Abrasax

Biggins wrote: »

I'd just bring my ereader (which at present will hold 10,000+ books) and a solar powered socket (for recharging).

It would have every book for hopefully every situation needed - and that included for bordome and emergencies,

Problem solved.

It's a cloudy, rainswept desert island.

Biggins

Abrasax wrote: »

It's a cloudy, rainswept desert island.

In that case, the third item would be a dynamo!

Hank_Jones

1. The Dictionary.
2. War and Peace
3. The Lord of the Rings
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
5. A Brave New World

D-Generate

1) Catch-22
2) A Brave New World
3) 1984
4) How to survive a Desert Island
5) The Bible. I am not a religious man but figure I would finally have time to read the worlds most popular book.

Herb Powell

kjl wrote: »

1-4 the twilight saga
5. How to cope with being a completely retarded.

nice, they cancel each other out

Hank_Jones

kjl wrote: »

1-4 the twilight saga
5. How to cope with being a completely retarded.

A completely retarded?

ejmaztec

Argos Catalogue.

bonerm

Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (Johnny Rotten)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser)
The Heros Journey (Josephy Campbell)
Ashes of Waco: An Investigation (Dick J. Reavis)

Dudess

Yeah 1984 as its brilliance never fails to astound me, and The Handmaid's Tale (the girlie 1984) and Oryx & Crake by the author of The Handmaid's Tale (dystopian fiction ftw) and also a bunch of Gary Larsens to keep me laughing - a lot of his cartoons feature a desert island, appropriately enough.

stovelid

Each book in the 'Rabbit' tetralogy by John Updike.

I have read them about 10 times and will continue doing so for the rest of my life.

jiltloop

1. The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien
2. The Diceman - Luke Rhinehart
3. 1984 - George Orwell
4. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
5. And hmmm something by Kurt Vonnegut not sure what, maybe Slaughterhouse 5

jiltloop

Dudess wrote: »

Yeah 1984 as its brilliance never fails to astound me, and The Handmaid's Tale (the girlie 1984) and Oryx & Crake by the author of The Handmaid's Tale (dystopian fiction ftw) and also a bunch of Gary Larsens to keep me laughing - a lot of his cartoons feature a desert island, appropriately enough.

Yeah Oryx & Crake is a great book, must give it another read.

Deus Ex Machina

Off the top of my head, in no particular order:

1. The Catcher in the Rye

2. Catch 22

3. The Brothers Karamazov

4. Moby Dick

5. 100 years of Solitude


Maybe....

Caoimhín

1; To kill a mockingbird.
2; Ulysses. (Never read it but i have been threatening to for a while now)
3. A brief history of time.
4. Freedom and its Betrayal (Isaiah Berlin)
5. As much Bertrand Russell as i could muster, ideally The importance of being idle.


Feck it, 5 isn't enough, there are just so many interesting books.

Abrasax

Caoimhín wrote: »

2; Ulysses. (Never read it but i have been threatening to for a while now)

I mulled over this one meself.
It's opaque enough to pass plenty of time wondering wtf is he on about now.

Caoimhín

Abrasax wrote: »

I mulled over this one meself.
It's opaque enough to pass plenty of time wondering wtf is he on about now.

I believe it is a real boring book, dont know why people waffle on about it.

Will give it a shot someday.

Abrasax

Caoimhín wrote: »

I believe it is a real boring book, dont know why people waffle on about it.

Will give it a shot someday.

Try reading Robert Anton Wilson's 'Coincidance', which is mostly a critique of Joyce.
I attempted Joyce once or twice but gave up in despair, then read Wilson's book and it throws an intriguing new light on the whole thing.
I will tackle it some day, myself.

Caoimhín

Abrasax wrote: »

Try reading Robert Anton Wilson's 'Coincidance', which is mostly a critique of Joyce..

Thanks, but if i cant follow a work of fiction i wont resort to reading another book to explain it. Bit too much like school is that.

pow wow

"100 Things to Do Before You Die"

For the irony and the lolz.

The Zinn Reader for some light entertainment.

Abrasax

Caoimhín wrote: »

Thanks, but if i cant follow a work of fiction i wont resort to reading another book to explain it. Bit too much like school is that.

He delves into the hidden and esoteric meanings and how Joyce manages to incorporate phrases, sentences, paragraphs and verse with quantum physics, binary code, Freudian and Jungian analysis and Eastern philisophic scripture, to name a few, into a holographic structure.
Even though I haven't read Joyce yet, I was blown away.

r3nu4l

Great thread! Also loved brummytom's post

1) SAS Survival Handbook...or The Scouting Trail (old version)
2) The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde - It's all bound in one book (on my bookshelf )
3) The Lord of The Rings - Such richness
4) Ulysses - With so much time on my hands I might actually analyse it properly
5) Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell - Love the book, love it!

thetonynator

Elliemental wrote: »

1) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
2) Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
3) The Fall - Albert Camus
4) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams*
5) A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel.


* Are you allowed to bring such a book? It is a trilogy in four parts, afterall!

5 parts actually. 6 if you count eoin colfers pathetic attempt to continue it.

kumate_champ07

Caoimhín wrote: »

Thanks, but if i cant follow a work of fiction i wont resort to reading another book to explain it. Bit too much like school is that.

so I presume you havent read the bible then?

Is there a movie version, maybe they could make a tv series, Keanu Reeves as Jesus, he usually has a beard when he's not filming anyway

Caoimhín

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

so I presume you havent read the bible then?

Is there a movie version, maybe they could make a tv series, Keanu Reeves as Jesus, he usually has a beard when he's not filming anyway

What the fúck has the bible got to do with anything?

kumate_champ07

I'd like 5 large hardback notebooks so I could write 5 books:

a childrens novel with Micheal Jackson as the protagonist,

an erotic thriller set in Carlow Town,

a book on the funniest racist stereotypes that are actually true

a complete list and description of every kind of sh1t possible ie color,texture, smell etc, each type will be given a name and hopeully when I get off the Island my system will be used in the medical field,

lastly a new Religious Text based on Fionn Mc Cool with an 8 week course that every child in Ireland must complete, at a cost of 140euro per child or 300euro per family. a ticket to Tir Na Nóig will be provided but can only be used after death

kumate_champ07

Caoimhín wrote: »

What the fúck has the bible got to do with anything?

absolutely nothing!

OutlawPete

Five books I haven't read.

My idea of hell would be to be stuck on an island with five books I've already read, no matter how good they are.

Deus Ex Machina

Abrasax wrote: »

He delves into the hidden and esoteric meanings and how Joyce manages to incorporate phrases, sentences, paragraphs and verse with quantum physics, binary code, Freudian and Jungian analysis and Eastern philisophic scripture, to name a few, into a holographic structure.
Even though I haven't read Joyce yet, I was blown away.

Such references would probably have sailed over my head like a jetliner, but I are you sure there are actual references to quantum physics in Joyce? I know Gell-Mann borrowed the word Quark from Finnegan's Wake, but that didn't have any scientific meaning when Joyce used it. Either way I am picking up Mr Wilson's book anyway.

Abrasax

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

Such references would probably have sailed over my head like a jetliner, but I are you sure there are actual references to quantum physics in Joyce? I know Gell-Mann borrowed the word Quark from Finnegan's Wake, but that didn't have any scientific meaning when Joyce used it. Either way I am picking up Mr Wilson's book anyway.

From an interview he gave...

Other times the non-local model makes more sense, which is a development of Bell's Theorem. This was stated most clearly by Edwin Harris Walker in a paper called The Complete Quantum Anthropologist. He developed a mathematical theory of a non-local mind, to which we can gain access at times. It's a complete quantum mechanical, mathematical model to explain everything that happens in mystical and occult experience. That makes a great deal of sense to me, especially when I found that Joyce was using the same model in Finnigan 's Wake. I think it also underlies the I Ching. I explain this at length in my book Coincidance.

IvySlayer

A book that is also a surfboard.

Gannicus

1. Nothing Lasts forever - by Roderick Thorpe (book Die Hard 1 is based on)
2. The 16th Round - by Rubin Carter
3. S.A.S. Survival Handbook
4. 1984 - by George Orwell
5. An A4 notebook to write a story myself.

I have never read any of the above by the way.

dr gonzo

Elliemental wrote: »

1) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Not planning on staying long on the island i take it?

jiltloop wrote: »

5. And hmmm something by Kurt Vonnegut not sure what, maybe Slaughterhouse 5

What about Galapagoes? Somewhat apt.

D-Generate wrote: »

1) Catch-22
2) A Brave New World The Long Goodbye
3) 1984
4) How to survive a Desert Island
5) The Bible. I am not a religious man but figure I would finally have time to read the worlds most popular book.

Im just going to completely copy this list bar one. Mighty fine literary taste D-Generate. :cool:

sponsoredwalk

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

5. 100 years of Solitude

Is that any good?

1: Marcel Proust - A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, (the big single version holding all 7 parts )

2: Romain Rolland - Jean Christophe, (The big single version encompassing all 10 parts )

3: H.D.Thoreau - Walden, (Well being stranded alone on a desert Island by the sea is kind of like being stuck all alone by a lake :pac:)

4: Roger Penrose - Road to Reality, (re-invent all of the math/physics he leaves out )

5: A big collection of Freud's writings or Anna Karenina probably

Giselle

The complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The complete works of Cecelia Ahern (kindling for my campfires).

alwaysadub

Wow,i love reading,yet can't think of 5 books i'd bring!

My mam just bought me the box set of Roald Dahl,to remind me of my childhood,so i'd have to bring some of them:D

Other than that,i'd read anything!

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Coomplete works of Dickens - takes you to another time

All of Orwell and Steinback - this goes without saying

Paddy Clarke ha ha ha - first book I loved and reminds me of being a whippersnapper

Ben Elton books - I don't care, when you're hungover and need the couch they are good, and of course I will be distilling spirits from coconuts so there'll be lots of hangovers

K-9

Anything LeCarre.

jiltloop

dr gonzo wrote: »

What about Galapagoes? Somewhat apt.

Haven't read that one before, any good? I always keep an eye out in Chapters and Easons but its always the same books, Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle.

karlog

Porn
Porn
Porn
Porn
The how to survive without porn handbook.

Bob Z

Robinson Crusoe