good question.

1) the stand by stephen king
2) salems lot by stephen king
3) the rising by brian keene
4) watchers by dean koontz
5) the hobbit/lord of the rings by tolkien (i count these as 1 because i would buy a one volume edition!)
6) harry potter and the sorcerors stone
7) needful things by stephen king
8) the complete sherlock holmes
9) titans by tim green

10. the chronicles of narnia by cs lewis

Jedicow, that's an interesting selection. There are a couple, Sherlock Holmes and Lord of the Rings, that I would give serious consideration to include in my list.

My 10 are:

1) The American Heritage Dictionary - this would give me hours and hours of pleasant browsing - this dictionary includes some pictures, usage notes, and etymology of some words

2) A P.G. Wodehouse Omnibus - excellent writing with great humor and I could reread this several times without getting tired of it

3) Adventures in Unhistory (Avram Davidson) - If I can remember half of what's in here I would be abe to speak about several myths with erudition (I'm currently reading this and find it very interesting, but this is probably not everyone's "cup of tea")

4) The Columbia Encyclopedia (the best one-volume encyclopedia) - tried reading the World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid and only got about a third of the way through the A volume, maybe I would have better luck with this

5) The Complete Far Side - I'm cheating since it has two volumes

6) The Father Brown Omnibus (G.K. Chesterton) - would probably have included The Complete Sherlock Holmes instead, but I thought I'd go for something a little different

7) The Art of Eating (M.F.K. Fisher) - I might not be eating great food, but I can read about it

8) A large collection of poetry - at least I could work on memorizing some poems while I'm stranded

9)Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

10. War and Peace (Tolstoy)- I have never read it and this would be the perfect opportunity

I could also use a survival manual, a recipe book for campfire meals, and a book about building boats. oh, and I might as well have pencil and paper so I could write a book about my experience.

Seems like there was a Twilight Zone where all a man wanted was to be left alone to read all of the time. My memory is hazy, but I think there was a disaster and he was left all alone and went to the library to pick out all of the books he wanted. After he picked his books out, he was giddily anticipating having all the time he wanted to read. Soon he has an accident and the glasses he's wearing with coke-bottle thick lenses are destroyed...sheer agony!

When people talk about what they would take to a desert island, they really mean, what would you choose if this were all that would ever be available to you. However, it always conjures up in my mind what I would do if I really, really were to spend the rest of my life alone on a desert island, yet have some time to prepare what I would take along with me. As for reading material, I think my first selections would be for survival.

Staying alive:

1 - Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance

2 - Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Complete Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival

3 - Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook

4 - US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76

5 - SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea

6 - Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness

Keeping sane:

7 - The Norton Anthology of Poetry - or other hefty survey of poetry anthology

8 - an anthology of essays exploring western thought

9 - the fattest, most comprehensive short story collection I can find that actually includes both literary and genre fiction.

8 - one volume edition of Jane Austen's complete novels - yes, this is a cheat, but I have seen one in a bookstore, so it really does exist.

I've only left myself four books for pleasure reading, and one of those is devoted to Jane, so the other three make up what I think of as an intense college literature survey course.

On the practical reference portion, I was tempted to add one or two of Euell Gibbons's classic survival books such as Stalking the Wild Asparagus, but thought that they would be too North America-centric. I don't know where this desert island will be.

And if I may be permitted, since it is not really a printed book, a big diary and plenty of pens so that I could record my thoughts. I think that would be a key part in avoiding despair.

Rosefolly

And while I'm at it, a well-stocked medical kit, sewing tools, a loom and spindle, leather working tools, wood working tools, garden tools, backpacking equipment, candles or lamps, insect repellent, sunblock, maybe some goats and chickens.... I'll assume no large predators on the island, human or animal. I'll also assume a decent supply of potable water or I won't live long enough to read the books in the first place.

The list goes on. But if I get to pick my books, I might as well pick my equipment, too. After all, the Swiss Family Robinson not only got each other for company, but an entire shipload of equipment.

Paula, you have made such sensible choices that I shall make sure I'm castaway on the other side of your island.
I will be very pleased to lend you my Swiss Army knife. There is a special edition just out that costs a mere £260 with lots of useful tools . . . everything except the thing for getting stones out of horses hooves.
I'll also bring a spade or a portable potty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Latest Swiss Army Knife

rosefolly, good choices -- if i'm ever stranded on an island i hope you're there

elliot, I remember that Twilight Zone episode. I think he was locked in the bank vault when the "bomb" dropped and then he broke his glasses. Yikes!!!

rosefolly, your first 6 picks are so practical and necessary I hope I wash up next to you. But in case I don't I will borrow those 6 and add:

The complete works of Thomas Merton if I could find such a thing or maybe I could just glue them together.....

The Story of a Soul by Therese of Lisieux

Tapestry by Laurel Lee

The Complete works of Kathleen Norris...getting the glue out again.

gbg

Uh oh.....I just realized I could not survive without The Complete Glued-Together Works of Bailey White . Now I have to give up a survival book but which one? Unless, of course, elliott you hmmm, um, well, uh, take bribes?

gbg

Well I certainly had fun doing research and composing the list this morning. I like that knife of yours, too, VeeR.

Here's the thing. Let's not get stranded on separate islands. If several of us end up on the same island together, not only will we be able to read each others' books, but we will also be able to talk about them too.

And GBG, let's make a rule that you can glue books by the same author together to make a Collected Works. If the publishers have been so careless as to neglect this, we certainly should feel free to correct their error.

Thanks, ElliotB, for posting the thread.

Rosefolly, I agree with you about those publishers, careless cads, but glue is readily available so we'll be all right.
I think we should definitely all get washed up on an island together with our little mini-libraries and then find that the island was once inhabited by a wealthy hermit who loved books and we came upon his mansion and it was well stocked with food and wine and a huge library of nothing but signed first editions and every other book ever written,plus preplanned regular shipments from all the publishers with their new crops of books, with plenty of bedrooms for everyone, and clothes in the closets, and a beautiful garden and then we find a will in the locked desk drawer and lo and behold it deeded the entire island and all it contents to me, his beloved long lost niece, as long as she shared it with the other booklovers she washed ashore with on Fantasy Island, two of whom are physicians, two are nurses, two are dentists, and two more are optometrists and two more are opticians, all of whom can man the fully stocked medical center in the East Wing if necessary.

gbg....out of her mind

Some of us did this before, but it is always fun to revisit. I had thought of Gibbons' "Stalking the Wild Asparagus", too, but decided the vegetation might be N/A.

1. Collected works of poet Mary Oliver.
2. The Four Quartets by Eliot.
3. A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.
4. The Wanderer by Alain Fournier.
5. Some of the philosophical writings of Albert Camus.
6. An art book, with excellent color reproductions of fine paintings.
7. A history of Great Britain from the pre-Roman times.
8. A book of the fauna and flora of wherever I found myself.
9. A book of old family photos.

10. A blank journal in which to write my thoughts, with many pens.

gbg, if this is to be a mixed group, should you include a good obstetrician in your group? (I read that somewhere.)

carolyn, in my demented fantasy the two physicians would be able to treat anything from a minor cut to heart transplants, with labor and delivery a piece of cake for them.

gbg

gbg-a chef? Don't we need a chef?
and a masseuse/manicurist. I can take only having limited clothing options, but I really need nice nails. It's a sanity issue.

My books:

The complete Austen (I own one.)
The Complete Shakespeare (ditto)
Illustrated Guide to Gardening lest we eat a poisonous something
The Family Guide to First Aid and Health Care
Queen Lucia R.F. Benson (all 6 Lucia books bound as one-own it)
OED Desk edition
A complete set of the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mysteries (this one I'll have to be gluing...)
....and Ladies of the Club Helen Hooven Santmyer
The complete collected works of Louisa May Alcott (potential glued one...although there should be one somewhere!)
Queen Mary the offical biography. She knew everybody, lived through so much.

gbg, LOL! I like your style, if I have to be marooned on a desert island, yours is definitely the way to go!

My list would overlap those of woodnymph and ccrdmrbks, and I'd definitely want to be marooned with Rosefolly's collection, as well. I'd also add a glued-together (and this would be beyond enormous) collection of the Miss Read books, and The Lord of the Rings.

oh good-I dithered between Alcott and Read, but now I'll have both!

I'm not planning to spend too much time on this deserted island so the following may come in handy:

Build Your Own Boat - Percy Blanford
Smoke Signals - Charles Snow
Semaphore - T W Holmes
Her Man Friday - E Bevarly In case I meet one . . . ( remember I saw him first)
Campfire Songs - Irene Maddox. For a romantic evening with the above.

cc, it goes without saying that any deserted island I wash up on would be staffed with celebrity chefs and hair, nail and makeup people and a full service spa.

gbg

Elliott.....even though your post about the Twilight Zone was just a few sentences long, I was chewing my nails and sweating by the time I came to the end!
I always dream of having nothing to do but read and OMG! What a nightmare scenario. I know I'll think about this all day now! (This is why my family does not allow me to watch the Twilight Zone!)