What is the criteria for books for a desert island?
I’d say a book that you can read over and over because
the book mobile won’t be coming by anytime soon. And
what’s the difference if these books are for a desert island
or if they’re for your nightstand for the rest of your life?
(un livre à mon chevet . . .)
No difference—you’re probably not headed for a desert
island anyway, and your nightstand will be there forever.
So I’ll start a list and we’ll cut and paste as time goes by.
(I have one getting second thoughts already!)
Barry Unsworth Losing Nelson
Elizabeth Taylor Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Barbara Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible
Kaufman and Hart You Can’t Take It with You
Wilkie Collins The Moonstone
Howard F. Mosher Northern Borders
Martha Grimes At the End of the Pier
Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days
A Poem A Day good for a daily read
Great First Lines to recall the great books
I know this isn’t legal, but if I could squeeze a few more books in the raft,
I’d take these authors: E.F. Benson, Ethan Canin, J.D. Salinger, Eudora
Welty, and Nicholson Baker. Put Dickens in there, too, please.
What does your list look like? TO BE CONTINUED . . .
I read “The Last Hurrah” by Edwin O’Connor every fall when there is a local election. If I were stranded on a desert island I’d be frustrated because I’d be missing the election and ruining my near-perfect voting record.
Oh, Jenny, that’s delightful! And hey, not to worry—-that’s
why we have absentee ballots! Or, and I think you might be good
at this—or start new elections on the island! Nice to hear
from you.
I’d need to have some lighter stuff. Three Men in a Boat would have to come and Pride and Prejudice for certain. Bleak House would keep me going for a few weeks each year. But couldn’t I just take my Kindle and a wifi router?
Ah, Three Men in a Boat would be good company. Nice one. (No, to Kindle and wifi router.)