21st Century Literature discussion

Simon Mayo of BBC Radio 2 asked Ian Rankin what were his Desert Island books

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080jpr6

What are yours? (You already get a Bible and a copy of Shakespeare.)

The question was not so much which books would he take to a desert island but what books formed him. Answering that question would elicit a different list that the books I would want with me on a desert island! On the desert island, I would want books that I could re-read over and over and still get something new from them. But the books that formed me would likely include books I do not want to read again, books that I read many years ago. It was also limited to six books!! In any event, thanks for the link to the show and for something to ponder!

Sorry, I hadn't actually listened to it. I just assumed (silly me!) that it was arranged similar to the long-running Desert Island Disks.

Personally, I'd want:

Jane Eyre
The first 3 books of the In Death series by J.D. Robb
Day of the Triffids
War of the Worlds
The works of H.P. Lovecraft
Pride & Prejudice
The Lord Peter works by Dorothy L. Sayers

My choices would be:


The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild
How to Build and Sail Small Boats - Canoes - Punts and Rafts
The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way
The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants
The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Life-saving Structures for Every Climate and Wilderness Situation
In Search of Lost Time

Whitney wrote: "My choices would be:

The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild
How to Build and Sail Small Boats - Canoes - Punts and Rafts..."

You know, survival books were what I was thinking too! And the Proust has multiple uses -- surefire cure for insomnia, bludgeon, hammer, fire starting, emergency tp, and you could even read it!

Peter wrote: "Whitney wrote: "My choices would be:

The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild
[book:How to Build and Sail Small Boats - Canoes - Punts and Rafts|16..."
Proust in French (with a good dictionary) would use up more time...

If it is a desert island, there might not be much to trap, gather, or cook unless it is an oasis (an island) in the middle of a desert, in which case, probably no need to know how to build a boat. But, I've always pictured the desert island as being a luscious tropical island in the middle of the Pacific, with plenty of pineapple and coconut trees, small, easily trapped, animals, a small boat with fishing gear, a waterproof, wind (i.e., hurricane and typhoon) resistant tent stocked with all the reproducing candles and matches, a solar powered refrigerator, and a firm, queen-size bed. In other words, no need for survival books! With Shakespeare and the Bible already provided, the six books I might choose could then be favorites to re-read or those nice fat books I keep putting off like Roberto Bolaño's 2666.

Hugh wrote: "Proust in French (with a good dictionary) would use up more time..."

Hi Hugh, so one of your choices would be a French - English dictionary. I never saw that coming!

I'm not much of a re-reader (only because there's so many unread books I want to get to), but if I had to choose for my stranded-island fate...

- The biggest-most-complete unabridged dictionary I could find
- Don Quixote
- Tao Te Ching
- Ficciones
- View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

I'm not certain which books I would take, but one of them would be Les Mis, just because there's so much in there that I don't think I'd ever get bored!

I think I would take books which were not only humongous, but which I know I could re-read, hence:

The Alexandria Quartet (already read 3 times, due for a fourth)
A Dance to the Music of Time (only read once so far, also due for re-reading)
A Suitable Boy (ditto above)
Les Miserables (ditto above)
In Search of Lost Time (in English please, since it took me 8 months to get through it in translation the first time - I wouldn't get past the first chapter with a French dictionary!)
War and Peace (haven't read it yet - maybe being on a desert island would force me to get to it)
Don Quixote (ditto above)

War and Peace is easier than you might think (as long as you don't try to read it in Russian...

Doug wrote: "I think I would take books which were not only humongous, but which I know I could re-read, hence:

The Alexandria Quartet (already read 3 times, due for a fourth)
A Dance to the Music of Time (onl..."

Such a great list Doug! I suspect you will prosper on your desert island! I was surprised seeing A Suitable Boy in the company of the other more "renowned works". I haven't read it yet, but it must be a fascinating reading experience considering how highly people rate it (and include in desert island collections).

Hugh wrote: "War and Peace is easier than you might think (as long as you don't try to read it in Russian..."

And did you try to read it in Russian, Hugh?

For all my talk about not being a re-reader, I apparently would not be willing to gamble on something unread like War & Peace, Doug. To be stuck on an island with a book I might not like... Inconcieveable!

Les Mis... definitely a good choice!

No! While we are talking Russian doorsteps I would take the Brothers Karamazov...

Marc wrote: "For all my talk about not being a re-reader, I apparently would not be willing to gamble on something unread like War & Peace, Doug. To be stuck on an island with a book I might not like... Inconcieveable!
i>
Marc, I have in the past been stuck in situations with very few books around me, and those situations have forced me through books I found boring!

I am of the opinion that even if you wouldn't have liked War & Peace under normal circumstances, you'd learn to love it if it was the only book available to you!

That's how I came to read Dracula at summer camp!

Hmmmmm... I forgot about Brothers K. (which I've read twice) ...might be tempted to swap that out for W & P, at last until I've actually READ it - which I SWEAR I am gonna get to in 2017! :-)

Oh, and two additional huge books I have had forever, but have yet to read, that I'd add to my already overlong list:

The Tale of Genji
The Mahabharata

PS to Haaze: I read a LOT of South Asian lit, and "A Suitable Boy' is one of my all time favs (in that genre and in general). It is actually a fairly quick read for its length. I am hoping the promised sequel actually gets published this year!

Whitney wrote: "My choices would be:


The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild
How to Build and Sail Small Boats - Canoes - Punts and Rafts
[book:T..."

I absolutely LOVE that you picked handy practical guides to your new desert island life, and then threw Proust in there. That's awesome!

I'd have to think on mine some more.

Maybe the Field Guides were meant to help her understand and interpret Proust.....?

Doug wrote: "I think I would take books which were not only humongous, but which I know I could re-read, hence:

The Alexandria Quartet (already read 3 times, due for a fourth)
A Dance to the Music of Time (onl..."

I amazed myself the first time through War and Peace. But the second read was even more wonderful. As Nabokov says of AnnaK, the characters become like members of your family, mostly the ones you like. Each read or listen or movie I have noticed the quirks of another one. Could live quite well with W&P.

I might follow your choice of the Alexandria Quartet, although I've tackled that only twice, separated by many, many years. Durrell does such lovely things with language -- and his people are interesting, too.

I'd include a book of poetry, even though I don't read it regularly. In an isolated place, I'd cherish the images and stretches of the imagination it would provide. Rumi? Or an anthology, more likely, ...?

I'd probably throw in something inspirational for those downer times, maybe someone like Hugh Prather. I could read Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love several times to consider what sustains through difficult, if not impossible, circumstances.

But these are choices I hope never to need to make. (Oh, yes, I didn't think about Nehru's history of India, the tome he largely wrote while in prison, if I remember its genesis correctly. A place against which to pitch one's knowledge of Western history, limited as that would be.)

But I admire Whitney's practicality.

My choices would be:

Infinite Jest
Anna Karenina
A Suitable Boy
Complete Proust
The Sandman graphic novels
Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy
Harry Potter books

He was quite the rugged outdoorsman!

I'm also wary of unknown books. One time I took a book I ended up hating on a 4 day backpacking trip, a dark spot on an otherwise great adventure. Agree that The Brother's K would also be a fine choice, especially since the newer translation got rave reviews.

I just tried reading/listening to Brother's K with the group on the Western Canon. Gave up. Not for me at this particular stage in my reading interests. I couldn't, or at least didn't, reach a point of empathy for any character.