desert island books
 

i'm sure this has been done before, but this could change occasionally. if you were trapped on a desert island and could only take 5 books with you what would they be?

1) the bible (that would burn up some time reading)

2) Last of the mohicans

3) Cantebury tales

4) Without remorse

5) The Stand

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runners up:

Living History (H. Clinton) gotta have something to start a fire with.

Raft making for dummies

robinson crusoe. (that might be depressing though.)

One would be a comprehensive survival guide, and the other four would be copies of the OED, so I'd have lots of paper to make stuff out of.

What kind of stuff? Well, that's what the survival guide will tell me.

why would you take the bible? I thought that was all about how to avoid sin and do unto others and stuff. If you're alone on an island, do you really need to know? there's noone to sin with or against, noone to do unto, no church to attend......you'd do better taking the buddhist version of the bible......do they have one? what's it called?

I'd take:

at least one hardcore porn mag( with extra lesbians)

that buddhist book

a good survival guide...what bugs you can eat and whatnot (good idea, clod)

Many lives Many masters - b weiss

365 ways to cook fish cook book

I think i'd be more intersted in taking lots of blank paper and pencils so i could finally WRITE a book. .........with extra lesbians. ;)

great idea. but don't forget the midget lesbians, they gotta have love to. and maybe there could be some sort of conspiracy...

You really don't get the contemplative life do you?

Choices subject to change without notice.

1. Atlas Shrugged
2. The Iliad & The Odyssey (or does that count as a "double"? Actually, if folks can have BOTH the old and new testament, I should be able to have both books of this.)
3. SAS Survival Handbook
4. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (I've been meaning to read it for years.)
5. The Making of the Atomic Bomb

(I actually had a bit of a hard time deciding whether or not I wanted to take "When Technology Fails" but the SAS survival manual is far more useful. I need to keep myself fed, not make professor-like widgets out of coconuts.)

The Beach by Alex Garland

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Dalai Lama (lj this is the Buddhist 'bible')

The Kama Sutra

Imaginary Friends And How To Stay On Their Good Side

i understand all the rest - but wouldn't this one jsut be rubbing your nose in it, as if to say "look at all the great things you'll never do again."?

Wolf has some good books...


For entertainment, I'd take...

Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do : The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country by Peter McWilliams

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman by David Boaz


On the more practical side...

The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use by Greg Green

Extreme Survival Almanac: Everything You Need to Know to Live Through a Shipwreck, Plane Crash, or Any Outdoor Crisis Imaginable by Reid Kincaid

Good choice wolf with The Making of the Atomic Bomb. its nice and thick, but real good.

The Bible is more than just two books. It is 46 OT books and 27 NT books in the Catholic version. Protestants have a few less. Let's say the Bible is an anthology and leave it at that.

So looking for books that are thick but good, I would go with:

Godel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid

the uncut 101 Arabian Nights (HUGE)

and still thinking

You do what you want, obviously, but why the book on growing weed? That has significantly limited utility ... either the weed grows on the island or it doesn't. You have time on your hands and can smoke-test every damn plant there, if you like.

I'm going to have to check out that Boaz book. Might be nice companion to my copy of the Pocket Patriot.

I've read that three or four times, but it's been quite a few years. Thanks for reminding me! Also reminds me that I have a copy of Metamathmagical Themas that I bought at a garage sale that I haven't gotten around to reading. Mebbe after I finish Imajica.

You have a point. I was just thinking of a way to make the time pass by quickly. I suppose the book wouldn't help too much if it weren't already growing on the island. But if it were, I'd need to know how to cultivate it and grow it to be more potent, and have a higher yield.

Supposing it isn't already growing on the island and since you've already chosen the Odyssey/Illiad combo book, I suppose I'd replace the weed book with...



The Lysander Spooner Reader by Lysander Spooner

I'm on night 338, a delightful little tale of various women insulting each others' appearances.