Yoyo, good thinking but I can't even assemble a simple flatpack nowadays! I had to call my son to screw legs on a sofa that I wasn't told was unfinished on delivery.

I shall have to think of the books I couldn't be without. Only ten? Hard choice.

I have a bit of experience with desert islands and what I take to read while I'm on them. I also call them boat books. I know you said proverbial, laceyvail, but I'm going to take it literally. :-)

• Don Quixote - It's nice and long (around a thousand pages), and I can dip into it at random and get lost in the Don's and Sancho's world. I've been reading it like that, continually, since 1967.
• The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists edited by Irene Taylor & Alan Taylor - A great favorite of mine introduced to me by our very own Astrokath here at RP.
• An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale - The trouble with this book is it's only 266 pages, but it is a must for me. First published in 1966, Neale recounts his experiences of living alone three different times for a total of about 15 years (beginning in the early 1950s) on an islet that's part of the Suwarrow Atoll (among the Cook Islands).
• The Book of Puka Puka by Robert Dean Frisbie - It was published in 1929, and is on every boating/desert island enthusiast's list it seems. The Pacific islands today aren't like they were during Frisbie's adventures, but the book is wonderfully nostalgic and will never grow too old or outdated to be enjoyable, in my opinion.
• A humongous anthology of poetry -- I'm talking about poems of all kinds, something that I can thumb through and happen onto whatever catches my eye and fancy.

That's five. I'll have to think some more about the other five that I might want to include.

Thinking, thinking... this is a hard question.

A tough question but worthwhile. I can come up with a few:

"Le Grand Meaulnes" by Alain-Fournier (in English, "the Wanderer.")

"A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Doak Dillard. ( filled with observations of the natural world and philosophical thoughts)

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

"The Go-Between" by L.P. Hartley

"The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova

"Cider With Rosie" by Laurie Lee

Several books of the poetry of Mary Oliver.

That's seven. I'm still thinking about the other three....

It is a hard question, and I've been thinking about it for months and still don't have the last 3 books. But I can see from some of the lists, that there a lot of books I've never heard of that I'll want to take a look at if you folks think enough of them for them to be the only things you'd want to read and re read for years.

I'm realizing that most of my
favorite/most memorable books are heart-wrenching, and who wants to read that
for the rest of their life? But hey, this is not literal, so maybe I'm safe listing nine heart-wrenching novels, and one humorous book for days when I tire
of the angst.

1. The
   Kite Runner -- Khaled Hosseini
2. Cutting
   for Stone -- Abraham Verghese
3. Dinner
   at the Homesick Restaurant,
   -- Anne Tyler
4. A
   Prayer for Owen Meany -- John
   Irving
5. The
   Prince of Tides -- Pat Conroy
6. Lonesome
   Dove -- Larry McMurtry
7. Sophie's
   Choice -- William Styron
8. The
   Glass Lake -- Maeve Binchy
9. I
   Know This Much is True -- Wally
   Lamb
10. I'm
    Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone it, People Like Me:
    Daily Affirmations by Stuart Smalley
    -- Al Franken

As I scanned my reading journal, I
filled in the ten slots, then had to start pasting over titles with other
titles. It was a heart-breaking exercise. But then, I do seem to like angst, so
it turned out to be kind of fun. Thanks for the assignment, Lacyvail!

The only one I could say with certainty would be The Lord of the Rings, I'll have to really think about the other nine.

I'll add three more to my five above:

• The Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne - the Everyman's Library edition because it includes not only the essays but also Montaigne's surviving letters and his travel journal, all translated magnificently by Donald M. Frame. This is another 'dipper' of a book. Open it at any page and Montaigne will treat the reader with his personal insights in a conversational way -- so if you get lonesome while on a desert island, Montaigne is a wonderful stand-in for a companion. Plus the book is 1392 pages and can double as a seat or stepping stool.
• Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie -- French historian Ladurie has written a time machine to the 14th century by using the register in the Vatican of Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers, who presided over the inquisition into heresy in the Languedoc where the Cathars and other heretics were willing to butt heads with Catholicism. Does this sound dull and academic? Not at all! Ladurie makes these people (peasants, shepherds, church high hats) real, and endlessly fascinating, I think. I can read it over and over.
• East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Bobrick -- Okay, not exactly desert island reading, but in a way it is because the pockets of habitation in Siberia since the beginnings of their history have been island-like in their isolation -- and remain so even today, to a certain extent. This book follows the pioneers who 'went east' in much the same way that pioneers of North America 'went west'. Of course, the ones who slogged eastward for generations (including those people we now consider Native Americans) eventually met the ones who were moving west. I love this sort of history.

Now, I will get back to considering the last two of my desert-island must haves. This is tough to winnow, but I agree with Kathy that it's fun.

Frieda, I am also a fan of LaDurie's "Montaillou". I found it fascinating and read it at least twice. I really loved the strange (to our ears) early French names in it.

I have thought of the rest of my list and will now delete both Lee and Hartley from what I wrote above:

Instead, here are four more I am adding:

Churchill's "A History of the English Speaking Peoples."

A comprehensive world atlas with maps. ( I have always been fascinated with maps).

A well-written history of the major nations of Western Europe.

An anthology of Western poetry.

I thought about this in depth a few years ago, but I'm glad this question came up again. It's fun to consider, and my ideas and tastes might have changed.

I think I'd dedicate 3 to practicality - perhaps a book on first aid in the field in case I get sick or hurt; a book on the native flora and fauna of the particular region so I'd know what to eat and what to avoid; and a general book on survival in the wilderness. I assume this is a wilderness kind of desert island, or it would not be deserted.

The rest I'll have to think about. I'd probably get collected works in single volumes of favorite authors to get the most bang for my options. LoTR in one volume, Jane Austen in one volume -- those are no brainers.

There other five I have to think about longer.

Like Rosefolly, I thought about putting purely practical books on the list. But since First Aid books, maps & charts, and various other equipment manuals are part of standard reference on every well-supplied boat and airplane, I decided to not include them and go with companionable, pleasurable books instead. Perhaps it's fudging a bit on my part, but I figure the practical books will be available anyway -- hooray! That means more for me to read. And I will read the technical stuff, because I tend to read anything where I can recognize words, numbers, diagrams, and photos.

As for the flora and fauna identifiers, they might be useful. I think every boat I've been on has had a volume or two of Euell Gibbons; e.g., Stalking the Wild Asparagus, probably left over from the 1960s and '70s. I think they are interesting, but actually I've never been very successful using them. It's quite maddening to compare photographs or drawings to actual specimens when the advice includes warnings that the edible ones can often be mistaken for the dangerous and deadly varieties; for example, distinguishing between edible and inedible fungi; and Pacific red snapper (fish that are usually safe to eat in most parts of the world but not always in the Pacific) . That's not comforting or confidence building and I wind up not taking the risk.

For my final two desert-island books, I'm leaning toward:

• The Complete Works of Shakespeare (must have all the sonnets), annotated. Lengthy prefaces are desirable, too.
• The King James Bible -- simply because I love the language and the way it sounds; and since it is so often the source of allusions in English-language and translated-into-English literature, reading it can be a wonderful reminder of all those writers who have been inspired in some way (even negatively) by something from the KJV.

Ruth 1:16 -- And Ruth said [to her mother-in-law, Naomi], Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Ruth 1:17 -- Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

I have that memorized, but I like seeing it written as well as hearing it in my head.

Lacey, I haven't replied to this before because I've been thinking and have found it almost impossible to come up with any satisfactory answers.

Over here there is a long-running BBC radio programme (started in 1942) Desert Island Disks, in which well-known people are asked to choose their eight favourite records plus a luxury and a book. The Bible and Shakespeare's works are already lying under a palm tree.

The musical choices varied widely from the Austrian opera singer who chose all her own recordings, to well-known politicians who can't live without punk rock.

Favourite 'reads' went from the extremes of the pretentious 'all the works of Proust in French' to the latest bonk-buster.

First I would have to ask that I'm not sent to a desert sand-filled island as the air would probably be full of the gritty particles which would get behind my contact lenses; it is pure torture and renders me practically blind ;-(

If I am to be allowed on a island in a temperate area I feel several manuals on self preservation, plant identification, fresh water divining etc. would be essential.

Fiction would possibly included The Wind in the Willows, The Oxford Book of Verse poetry does count as 'fiction' doesn't it and I could try and keep my brain active by learning more of it. Lord of the Flies might be useful to remind me of how not to behave in a similar situation. Robinson Crusoe would come in handy . . . although without sand I might miss that solitary foot.

For light relief I would include bound copies of Richmal Crompton's works and ditto for the books of Betty MacDonald.

For me, no matter what the other 5 might be, I wiuld want five really super amazingly thick blank notebooks and a supply of pens or pencils. I would want to write and read.

The remaning five would have to be not only good reads but big reads.

1. The Historian

2. The Agony and the Ecstasy

3. Russka or Sarum

4. Complete Works of Shakespeare

5. History of Philosophy

PAM

You know what the hardest part of this exercise is? I don't like to think that I would never get to read a new book again.

Kathy T, that's why I am now thinking really hard to decide which two books I have never read before I would choose, and which two I would remove from the list I made the last time we had this discussion. I am also considering some other changes to the old list. Will post my list when (and if) I am able to decide.

Netla - Nice to see you posting again. I thought about including unread books, but what if they aren't as good as you'd hoped? And of course, they will quickly lose their unread status. Oh the misery Lacyvail has brought upon us!

I had to look up Richmal Crompton. I'd never heard of her. Now, Vee, are you cheating by imagining that all of her many, many books (according to WiKipedia some 40 William books for children, other children's books as well, and about 41 books for adults!)can be bound as one volume, as in "The Complete Novels of"? If that's allowed, then I want all of Paddy Leigh Fermor's bound as one volume, as well as all of Faulkner's novels,and then I can choose lots more. Hmmmm.

OK lacey, I'll compromise and take a bound selection of Crompton's children's books. They were originally printed in the monthly editions of a popular adult (not the modern sort of adult ) mag and each year a book of twelve stories came out; probably in time for Christmas. I've never read any of her 'grown up' books which are probably long out of print.

What is it about Faulkner's work that so appeals to you? I've never read any.

How to describe why Faulkner knocks me out. First of all, he's depicted the angst and deeply complex race relations of the deep rural south in a way that I don't think anyone else has, though of course what he writes about lies now in the past. Second, his style, though it seems impenetrable at first, strikes me as something like the way people think-- one thought brings you to another then to another then to another--there's a whole world there. And once you get him, you find that there is great humor in some of his work and characters.

I was in high school when I first started to read Faulkner, and began with The Sound and the Fury. It took me several tries--and I finally bought a reader's guide to Faulkner which helped a great deal, especially realizing that there were two characters named Quentin, one a young girl and the other a much older man.

I've always thought that Faulkner was THE great American novelist because he captured his piece of America and its inhabitants better than any other writer has captured his chosen place and time. The novella The Bear is probably the best story about hunting ever written, and the last part of it, often omitted, contains, according to Malcolm Cowley (the editor of my collection) "the longest sentence in American fiction, and longer than any in English or Irish fiction, except for Molly Bloom's soliloquy. This very complex and difficult to disentangle sentence contains "one of Faulkner's most impressive themes: the belief in [the character's] heart that the land itself had been cursed by slavery, and that the only way for him to escape the curse was to relinquish the land."

I am already on an island which has deserts anyway! Would something like the Nullarbor suit you, Vee? Although there is always going to be some kind of irritating dirt....

My mother had a copy of Richmal Crompton's short stories "A Monstrous Regiment" which was an adult book but which I enjoyed as a child and of course we loved the Just William stories which was written for all ages to enjoy. You may find some on Abe or sites like Betterworld books.

I don't think I could limit myself to just ten books. When I moved back to this desert island, I had to cull dreadfully and brought mainly literature reference books, the Complete Works of Shakespeare (a gift from workmates to my late husband) and a cookery book by Delia Smith.

I still had some books in store in Australia, mostly those ones which reflected my former hobbies like vegetable carving and the breeding and showing of deerhound dogs and various breeds of cats.

lacey, Wow! many thanks for the Faulkner information. I found a copy of The Sound and the Fury in one of several boxes of books left by my S-in-Law for 'safekeeping' while he and my DD moved to Manchester. He must have taken a course in US Lit as they are all of this genre. I have yet to delve into the other 4 boxes.

I shall gird my loins and make a start . . . soon.

Ann, I think the Nullarbor might prove to be a sandcastle too many . .. Actually I do own about 15 of the 'William' books. The earlier titles are better than the more recent ones (did you know RC started them in 1919?) I must have been given a few as gifts, when they cost five bob each, one I swopped for a quarter of sugar almonds and the others perhaps bought second hand. The wonderful thing about them is their ability to entertain at so many levels.

No one has included Gone With the Wind? I'm amazed. It would be my first choice after the Bible and Shakespeare, but the other seven are unresolved--maybe Hawaii and/or Centennial by Michener. They are nice and long and my favorites of his work.

When we last interviewed people to work in our bookshop, I included this question, but only asked for 5. I also said there was a dictionary, and copies of the Bible and Shakespeare's works supplied.

I will have to apply a bit more thought to this.

I think I've finally decided on my last two, with the Faulkner short story collection making one of the last three. The last two would be the Collected Essays of E.B. White and the last one, the collected letters of same. I love his writing, perhaps the most skillful I've ever read, and so deceptively simple, and his observations are timeless.