The topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesdays is the Books I’d Want With Me While Stranded On a Deserted Island.
If I could pre-plan the books to have on me when I crash on a deserted island, these would be the ones to keep me sane and entertained (didn’t the daughter in Inkheart basically do that?). This was one of the quickest posts that I’ve ever compiled. Which says something about how much these books mean to me, I think. Also, they’re largely books I haven’t touched since I started this blog. In fact, other than mentioning them frequently, I’ve written posts about very few of these (two, actually). Maybe that should be a challenge I set myself…hmmmmm……
Anyway, by all rights, there should be a novel by Rex Stout on this list, but trying to pick just one would’ve induced an aneurysm. Or at least it felt like it. I might be able to come up with a Deserted Island Rex Stout list, but beyond that, there’s just no way.
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 The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson Because when else am I ever gonna have the time to read this? |
I’m Just Joshin’ Ya, Here’s the Real List:
(but seriously, when else am I going to?)
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 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë One of the few “required texts” from High School I’ve reread several times for pleasure. |
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 Dead Beat by Jim ButcherThe seventh Dresden Files novel was the first I read, and probably my 2nd Favorite. I’d say Changes, but I don’t want to do that to myself if I’m stranded with no one to talk to. |
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 The Snapper by Roddy Doyle Yes, The Commitments is more fun. The Van is technially a “better” novel. But … something about the second in the trilogy that just gets to me. |
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 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Probably the other “required text” that I’d re-read given the excuse. Entertaining, inspiring, convicting…it’s the whole package. I have a line from it tattooed on me, I have no idea how my daughter escaped being named Scout…I could keep going here. |
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 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin My mother brought this library book home to me once when I was super sick (I think a librarian that new me recommended it). I have read it countless times since, and can’t imagine not doing so. I also have no idea how my daughter escapted being named Tabitha-Ruth “Turtle.” |
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 Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand (I’d probably specify the Hooker translation) If I tried to talk about this one, I wouldn’t know how to stop. |
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 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss I’m at the point now that I don’t care if we get book three or not. I got to read this a few times, and that’s enough for me. |
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 Early Autumn by Robert P. Parker I’ve re-read the first 15 or so Parkers enough that I’ve lost count, but I’ve probably returned to this one the most often. |
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 How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper Not Tropper’s best, not the first I read, or anything else. I honestly can’t explain this choice, but it’s one of the first to come to mind on this list. |
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 Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow The most entertaining Winslow novel that I’ve read. The first chapter is perfect. Absolutely, no two ways about it, perfect. The rest comes close to the Platonic ideal, too. |
Allyson allysonyj
I’ve read four of your choices. On a desert island, I’d take “Jane Eyre” also. But I’d have trouble taking just one of any of the series I love. How could I take just “Outlander” without at least “Dragonfly in Amber” and”Voyager”? How could I take “The Fellowship of the Ring” without “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King”? How could I take “The Game of Kings” without the other five of Dunnett’s “Lymond Chronicles”, each of which is better than the last? How could I pick only one of Trollope’s “Palliser/Political Novels”? Or just one of Winston Graham’s “Poldark” series? Or of Mary Stewart’s Arthurian retellings”
OK, standalones only allowed. In no particular order: Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”, Dorothy Dunnett’s “King Hereafter”, Trollope’s “Doctor Thorne”, Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend”, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice”, Nevil Shute’s “In the Wet”, or maybe “Trustee from the Toolroom”, Georgette Heyer’s “Frederica” or maybe “The Masqueraders”, Melville’s “Moby Dick” (because it would take a lot of time and thought to get through again”), Dostoevsky’s “Brother’s Karamosov” (because I’ve loved other Dostoevsky and this one has been on my TBR list for a long time) and of course, the Bible (King James version).