Oly Reads discussion

You know the deal. You're going to spend the next twenty five years on a desert island, and you're allowed to bring no more than ten books. What will you bring? No fair bringing a series and counting it as one book.

Tristram Shandy

Ulysses

Finnegan's Wake (might actually finish it)

Leaves of Grass

The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (hey, it's in one hard-bound volume)

The Complete Verse of Rudyard Kipling

This is My best (a collection compiled in the '40s from the greatest writers of the time, choosing their entries)

Sister Carrie

Henry V

The Spell of the Yukon [Robert Service]

This is waaaaay too hard of a question, Agathafrye! I might have to do this in installments.

1)Jane Eyre
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Mirror of the World: A New History of Art by Julian Bell, with 372 illustrations
4) some sort of Desert Island cookbook.

Good answers, both of you! You notice I haven't answered yet... :)

Okay, I'ma take a crack at this...

1. Harriet the Spy
2. The Little Prince
3. a family album (I didn't specify what kind of book...)
4. the best, most comprehensive survival guide there is, including recipes (research pending)
5. Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo
6. The Ground Beneath Her Feet
7. the most recent World Almanac
8. Random House dictionary
9. Cider House Rules
10. Letters from Chickadee Hill (one of my grandpa's books)

I reserve the right to change my mind up until the moment I actually have to go to the island.

PS- Rummy, I have only read Kipling and Carroll out of your whole list. Well, maybe I read some Whitman because I had to for a class.

Yeah, Rummy. I've read some Robert Service and the Lewis Carroll, oh and some of Kipling's Just So Stories, but not his verses, but I haven't read any of the others.
Have YOU read them already, or think a desert island would be the perfect place to finally tackle those books you've always MEANT to read?
Which, I must admit, is a tactic worth considering...

I've already read them all except for Finnegans Wake, which I've studied various parts of but never the whole thing all at once, and the Sylvie and Bruno portions of the Lewis Carroll.

I think, however, that I'll trade in Sister Carrie for something from Faulkner - maybe Sound and the Fury.

Let me seeee....

Death Comes to the Archbishop

Billy Collins: The Trouble with Poetry

Eudora Welty Collection of Short Stories

Jane Eyre

A collection of Robert Frost Poems

A Christmas Carol

My set of Winnie the Pooh books my Grandma gave me 40 years ago

more to follow

Nice, Susie. My grandpa claimed to have been friends with Robert Frost, and would tell me stories about what a cantankerous old fart he was. My grandfather pulled my leg a lot, so I can't say for sure if he was telling me the truth, but I like to think that he was.

You know, I heard that he was an old fart...I don't know what I expect when I think of men poets...are they an enlightened bunch...are the overcome with some deep sensitivities...are they ego centric? I love to read him though. I am sure that your grandfather would not pull your leg about that! Any interesting stories?

Does the island have wireless? ;-)

Okay, how 'bout a blank journal of some sort to whine in, or to note/draw the exotic foliage and wild pigs that are rooting around, or to write messages to stick in a bottle (empty, rum of course).

A girl scout survival manual.

Something wise, like by the Dalai Lama or Thoreau (so I can at least pretend to be reverent when I'm freaking out).

A songbook of ABBA tunes.

One story that sticks in my mind, although the actual poem they were talking about eludes me. My grandfather (who was also a poet) was asking Frost about the meaning behind a particular poem, and Frost kept getting all grumpy and saying "It means what it means." He insisted that none of his poetry had any hidden meanings, basically.

Kristi, the island has wireless, but it doesn't work. Just like the library. :)

ABBA tunes, Kristi? Now I know I love you!

Great question, Kelsey. Hmmmm...I only have one so far and it's not nearly as high falutin' as the classics other people have listed-not because I don't like the classics, but just because this is the first book that comes to mind when I think about whiling away endless hours.

Swan Song by Robert MacCammon

It's long, it's engrossing, and it stands up to repeated reads. Although I hope I'm not totally alone on this island, because it's also quite scary. Shiver.

Back later with more...

I suppose that of the poets that I have read, his do seem the most direct. To read them, it is enough for them to be of the moment.