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Your Desert Island Books


willoyd

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Desert Island Discs is one of my favourite radio programmes (although I am missing Kirsty Young a lot; her substitute Lauren Laverne is just not in the same league as her predecessors).  For those unfamiliar with it, it's a programme where the interviewee (the 'castaway') is invited to discuss their life and select 8 recordings that they would take with them if marooned on a desert island, a small piece of it then being played as part of the programme.  At the end of the programme, the interviewee is also invited to select a book (they already have the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible, or presumably the equivalent if of another religion) and a luxury, which must be of no practical use to their survival. The programme is a bastion of the BBC radio schedule, the first episode having been broadcast in 1942, and over 3000 programmes transmitted.

 

I found myself in a conversation the other day when we started discussing our Desert Island Books - we were all avid book readers - and thought it would be interesting to find out what members of this forum might choose.  Interestingly, I found myself not necessarily listing my favourite books (there's another thread for that!), but books I would want with me to read and reread - a slightly different proposition. 

 

So, here's the challenge.....What would you choose as your Desert Island Books? 

 

The rules are:

 

1.  You may select up to 8 individual books. These books must be ones that you have read at least in part (people don't choose discs of music they haven't heard!), but otherwise may be fiction, non-fiction, or any format.  You may not have omnibus editions, nor may you have a book that would be of practical use on the island (so no instruction manuals!).

2.  You already have the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible, or the latter's equivalent (even if you don't want to read them!)

3.  You may also select one series by a single author (it must be a coherent series, not just the collected works of an author).

4.  You may also choose one book that you have yet to read.

 

I hope people are interested - I'll follow this post with a draft of my list (with the caveat that I retain the right to change it!) as an example to stimulate thought!

Edited by willoyd
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OK, my initial choice!

 

The main 8 books

1.  A Month in the Country by JL Carr

2.  Bleak House by Charles Dickens

3.  Middlemarch by George Eliot

4.  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

5.  Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker

6.  Letter from America by Alistair Cook

7.  A History of the World by JM Roberts

8.  The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

 

The series/omnibus

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series

 

The book yet to read

Les Miserables (still haven't got around to reading it - maybe have time on a desert island!).

 

So, a bit heavy on the classics, but these tend to be the books I want to read and reread!  Maybe someone can come up with something a bit lighter?

 

 

Edited by willoyd
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11 hours ago, Brian. said:

Two books I know I would take are Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, and Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. As for the rest I will have to have a bit of a think about it.

 

Yes, there's always a few that are must-haves, and then after that it becomes a real challenge, however short/long the list is!

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  • 3 weeks later...

After turning this over in my head a few times I think I have my list.

 

The main 8 books

1.  Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

2.  Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

3.  Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

4.  Cold War by Jeremy Isaacs

5.  War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

6.  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

7.  Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

8.  All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

 

The series/omnibus

Henning Mankell's Wallander series

 

The book yet to read

Anna Karenina  by Leo Tolstoy (After enjoying War & Peace I think I would enjoy this)

 

I'm a little surprised that there is only one non-fiction book on my list.

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War and Peace almost made it on to my list as well!  I'm fascinated as to why Cold War is there, especially, as you say, it's your only non-fiction book - it's not the sort of book I'd expect to see on a short list (easy to understand the others, they're all classics of their type). It's on my shelves to be read, so I wonder if I should get around to it soon!

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I love the Cold War era and had to choose between 2 books, the one mentioned and The Berlin Wall by Frederik Taylor. I decided to go for the book by Jeremy Isaacs as it encompasses all of the cold war instead of just the Berlin wall. Both books are fantastic and I would recommend them to anyone interested in that period of history.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 01/12/2018 at 10:26 AM, Brian. said:

Both books are fantastic and I would recommend them to anyone interested in that period of history.

 

Good to hear, as both on my TBR list. Thank you both for this and your list, which I found really interesting.  It would be good to see what others would take.

Edited by willoyd
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