If I was going away forever and could only take one book, what would you recommend?

[slightlyajar]

Okay lets just say you know someone who, for some reason, is going away forever. They can bring one book with them. This will be the last book they ever read! What would you recommend? What makes that book a must read in ones lifetime?

[wessexgirl]

If I was only allowed one book, it would have to be the complete works of Shakespeare. All those plays, and the beautiful sonnets. Here in the UK, we have a programme called Desert Island Discs, where people are hypothetically stranded on an island and have to choose which music they would take with them. They're allowed a luxury too, but everyone gets the complete works of Shakey and the Bible, (whether they want them or not :D). There's obviously so much in Shakey that you'd never get bored while you were waiting to be rescued.

[MarkBastable]

If I was only allowed one book, it would have to be the complete works of Shakespeare. All those plays, and the beautiful sonnets. Here in the UK, we have a programme called Desert Island Discs, where people are hypothetically stranded on an island and have to choose which music they would take with them. They're allowed a luxury too, but everyone gets the complete works of Shakey and the Bible, (whether they want them or not :D). There's obviously so much in Shakey that you'd never get bored while you were waiting to be rescued.

I think they give them the Bible and Shakespeare not to stop the castaways getting bored , but to stop the show's audience getting bored, because until they gave them those two in a party-bag, everyone on the show used to choose, with monotonous predictability, either the Bible or Shakespeare.

...for exactly which reason, I think we should say that those two aren't available choices in this thread. You get them for nothing. On a Kindle. With immortal batteries.

[PeterL]

The OED

[March Hare]

I was just about to second Wessexgirl when I saw PeterL's OED pick. Interesting choice and you might even be able to build a sturdy shelter with all the volumes.

Although I still think I'd choose The Complete Shakes.

Borges' Collected Fictions as an alternate.

[wessexgirl]

I think they give them the Bible and Shakespeare not to stop the castaways getting bored , but to stop the show's audience getting bored, because until they gave them those two in a party-bag, everyone on the show used to choose, with monotonous predictability, either the Bible or Shakespeare.

...for exactly which reason, I think we should say that those two aren't available choices in this thread. You get them for nothing. On a Kindle. With immortal batteries.

I didn't realise that Mark. Oh well, if I'm going to get them anyway, I might go for an anthology of all the greatest poetry, I don't know which one though.

[amarna]

If there's a book entitled "How to outsmart premises and take more than one book" I'd recommend this.

[dafydd manton]

Call me mad if you wish, but the Complete Works of AA Milne would do me just nicely. Well written, funny, thoughtful, and ideal for hiding away in your own little world. You wouldn't get lonely with Winnie The Pooh around!!!

[eyemaker]

The Bible. I think you already know why.:)

[stlukesguild]

Well... if I'm already getting Shakespeare and the Bible the next logical choice is Dante's Comedia.

[sixsmith]

If I was only allowed one book, it would have to be the complete works of Shakespeare. All those plays, and the beautiful sonnets. Here in the UK, we have a programme called Desert Island Discs, where people are hypothetically stranded on an island and have to choose which music they would take with them. They're allowed a luxury too, but everyone gets the complete works of Shakey and the Bible, (whether they want them or not ). There's obviously so much in Shakey that you'd never get bored while you were waiting to be rescued.


I'd only take the Bible as means of procuring a fire on my desert island.

[Zee.]

The most dangerous game

ahahahahhahahahhaha

:D

google and find out why :D

[LitNetIsGreat]

I think it would have to be Milton's collected works, you could certainly indentify with Paradise Lost (or Regained) on a whole new level too.

[PeterL]

The most dangerous game



But there is no one else on the island that you will be going to.

[Zee.]

But there is no one else on the island that you will be going to.

Well yeah, that's what you think. But when you're not looking.... :crash:

[Emil Miller]

Having been tortured by indecision in having to choose betwen Dante's 'The Divine Comedy', Shakespeare's 'King Lear', and Cervantes' 'Don Quixote', I have decided to compromise and go for 'Blondes Don't Die Easy' by Brad Wiggly.

[mortalterror]

Well... if I'm already getting Shakespeare and the Bible the next logical choice is Dante's Comedia.

There I'd have to disagree with you. If you already have The Bible and Shakespeare, the Comedia is redundant. You might as well choose the Koran next while you are at it. Most of what you can get out of Dante is in Shakespeare and The Bible anyway. Why not go for something that expands your range of choices, a book that offers something the other two don't? If I already have Shakespeare then I don't need the Greek dramas either, or Racine, or Calderon, or Marlowe. We have to be practical. I'd go with the complete Aristophanes, Catch-22, Huckleberry Finn, or Don Quixote for most people. Don Quixote is better than Moliere because it has a different narrative pattern than the Bible and Shakespeare. I can see someone going for The Odyssey, but that might strike a little too close to home. I might try Hemingway's short stories for variety, or the Complete Tales of Sherlock Holmes.

If we're not limited to fiction, I'd take a copy of How to Survive on a Desert Island, or some such survival handbook. Perhaps, a psychological tomb about dealing with isolation anxiety. Possibly a book about shipbuilding?

I might also want a copy of Montaigne's essays. Aside from being an able philosophical guidebook, filled with various information upon every subject, Montaigne's writing is so lucid and genial it is almost as good as having a companion. Plato's Republic contains better philosophy, but I doubt it would come in handy on an island. It reaches it's greatest application in a social climate. In solitude, I believe Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy would be more helpful, especially if you had a very short time left to live.

[JBI]

I'd pack a pistol instead - though I'm tempted to take my Norton Anthology of English Poetry.

[mortalterror]

I'd pack a pistol instead - though I'm tempted to take my Norton Anthology of English Poetry.

You know, there are easier ways to kill yourself.

[MarkBastable]

You know, there are easier ways to kill yourself.

You mean easier than a pistol, or easier than death by English Poetry?

[The Comedian]

If I were to take any book, I'd probably choose this one: The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

If I were limited to literature, then given the bleak situation, and that I'd already have a couple of books for mind fodder, then the next need for me would be laughter. In that event, I'll take this book: Napalm & Silly Putty by George Carlin.

[mollie]

I'm sorry to hijack your thread, Slightlyajar, but if the rules did not allow for anthologies or collected/complete works, what would people go for then? If you were restricted to one play, or novel, or collection of poetry or short stories as originally published?

[JBI]

You know, there are easier ways to kill yourself.

Yes, but I'm far too romantic to go in any simple fashion - the Goethe appeal still holds.

[bazarov]

Brothers Karamazov all the way to the grave!

[*Classic*Charm*]

Having been tortured by indecision in having to choose betwen Dante's 'The Divine Comedy', Shakespeare's 'King Lear', and Cervantes' 'Don Quixote', I have decided to compromise and go for 'Blondes Don't Die Easy' by Brad Wiggly.

I'll take the Divine Comedy then, please! :) That, or Shakespeare's Complete Works.

[mortalterror]

Yes, but I'm far too romantic to go in any simple fashion - the Goethe appeal still holds.

Joke. A poorly framed joke. I was implying that you meant to bludgeon yourself with the Norton Anthology in lieu of a pistol. But all the same, you do remind me of that delightful ending in Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock, where the young hero intends to imitate Werther.

[Emil Miller]

I'll take the Divine Comedy then, please! :) That, or Shakespeare's Complete Works.

How about 'Lady Don't Fall Backwards' by Darcy Sarto?

[*Classic*Charm*]

How about 'Lady Don't Fall Backwards' by Darcy Sarto?

Now that sounds like literature by which to guide one's life :p

[grace86]

Okay...it's a given that we'd already have Shakespeare's collected works, and the Bible (which would have been my first choice anyhow), so, if I am to stick to a piece of literature (and not nonfiction) and literature that isn't an anthology, I would have to pick....

Don Quixote....

Because it has so many stories within it that I am sure to be easily entertained.

[Whifflingpin]

"The Burden of the Balkans" - Edith Durham
or "The Sleepwalkers" - Arthur Koestler

[Desolation]

Does 'In Search of Lost Time' count as one book?

If so, either that or 'The Portable Nietzsche'.

[Eryk]

Something with prose and verse and different authors.. the Norton Anthology of World Literature.