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Books
Survivor: Book Island
You are a castaway on a deserted island. You’ve been putzing around the last few days waiting for the rescue boat, but it looks like you might be here a while. You build a shelter. You scavenge for food. Then a suitcase washes ashore. You open it hoping to find a GPS tracking device or a transmitter radio. Instead you find a suitcase containing three books. Good thing you’re a Habitual Reader.
What three books (fiction) do you want with you on the island?
Fill out the "Survivor: Book Island" form.
| Book Title: Deptford Trilogy |
| Author: Robertson Davies |
Because one of the main characters is a magician, the middle section is a Jung therapy session, it's long enough to know you're going to settle in for hours of enjoyment and even though I read it every 10 years, I forget it enough to go back again and enjoy it.
| Book Title: Anna Karenina |
| Author: Leo Tolstoy |
Because I'm in the middle of it now, and again, if I'm stranded, I want lots of pages to turn. It's also surprisingly charming and a pleasure to read.
| Book Title: Man's Search for Meaning |
| Author: Viktor Frankel |
Not a long book, or a fun one, but a wise one. And who couldn't use wisdom if they were stuck on a desert island?
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| Book Title: The Malleoreon Series |
| Author: David Eddings |
This follow-up series to the Belgariad is one that I have read many times. It's still a fun series and it's like getting reacquainted with old friends.
| Book Title: Dragonsinger Trilogy |
| Author: Anne McCaffrey |
Dragons, firelizards and bards make this one of the best three-book series that she wrote. It ties in with the Dragonrider series but is an excellent standalone and one of my personal favorites.
| Book Title: Beekeeper's Apprentice |
| Author: Laurie King |
1st in a mystery series starring Mary Russell. She trips over Sherlock Holmes while reading and walking. He takes her on as an apprentice after discovering she has the same kind of intelligence he does. It isn't nearly as unrealistic as it sounds and is one of my most favorite mysteries.
| Book Title: The Stand |
| Author: Stephen King |
Along with many other King fans, this is my favorite of his books. I love all the different characters as well as all of the little details he includes that makes it such a terrific read. There is something so appealing about that age old concept of good triumphing over evil. In an ideal world, I'd re-read it every couple of years but since there are many other books to read for this habitual reader & only so many hours in the day, I'd take it with me to the island!
| Book Title: The Poisonwood Bible |
| Author: Barbara Kingsolver |
I experienced this story of the Price family & Africa's Congo as a book on tape & found myself so entranced with it that at times, I'd have to pull over to the side of the road to give the listening my full attention! This is one of my very favorite books of all time. On the island, I could see if it would seem like a different book reading vs. listening.
| Book Title: The Abhorson Trilogy |
| Author: Garth Nix |
My daughter introducted me to the first book, Sabriel & I was hooked. They are unlike any other books of that genre that I've ever read before & I keep hoping he'll give us more! I keep thinking I'll re-read them to savor the details.
| Book Title: Tales |
| Author: H. P. Lovecraft |
Very spooky stuff set in shell-worlds inside or beside our own. Because am not a horror fan, and I quickly run under the nearest sofa, I'd better have a guaranteed sort of light and, minimally, a shelter with two walls and a cover. It's going to get very weird in there. Safe here at home, I can be amused and say I really like a movies featuring 'Pinhead'. I laugh off the idea of H.P. Lovecraft stories here on the mainland, but I note here I haven't read a single one of them. So I make a bold plan to try one Lovecraft story the first five nights. The theory is that the island noises will be a relief compared to the contents of the book.
But, whether moon over the island or no: eventually the story will stop the concert of my faculties and organs. When, finally, it gets light, I'll be sitting in three inches of water: with the sun higher, me still shivering a little, starting to sketch houses, mommies, horses in the sand. MUUHaaaHaaHaa.
| Book Title: Collected Works |
| Author: Flannery O'Connor |
Her collected short stories. I'm a reader in the south but it's only recently that I've started to read "Southern Literature". Then there's my short story handicap.
Usually a short story is dense. Every word matters. Apparently, one theme in O'Connors work is the place of a Catholic in the South. That's all I know.
| Book Title: Powerbook |
| Author: Jeanette Winterston |
I read about 3 pages from Written on the Body ( I think that's the right title.) My kids and their peers are very interested in her writing. My daughter Amelia says that this book is the most suited for me as the first. Probably won't understand it first go 'round. Goes against several tendencies: a) to read books too painfully true or b) ones that look too hard for me (but new turf, new reading habits).
| Book Title: Mysterious Island |
| Author: Jules Verne |
The Myserious island had bountiful surprises and mysteries on it, so perhaps if I was in the same situation, reading the book would give me incentive to explore the island and investigate its own mysterious wonders.
| Book Title: Byzantium |
| Author: Stephen Lawhead |
This is my second favorite book of all time. It is a masterpiece of literature about one man's life journey spanning many years and many lands, filled with hardship and despair. Reading this might remind me that no matter how hard it gets, there can be salvation in the end. It would allow me hope that I too would get rescued off that island.
| Book Title: Hunger's Brides |
| Author: Paul Anderson |
I have not read this monster of a tome yet, but I want to soon. I bought it new when it was released at the end of 2005 and have not found the energy or time to devote to such a literary endeavor. It is 1358 pages, very small print. One must lift weights daily to hold the book it is so heavy. But if I was on a deserted island waiting, I'd have all the time in the world to finally get to this very, very lengthy and intriquing historical novel I've been dying to make priority.
| Book Title: Don Quixote |
| Author: Cervantes |
I'd have to finish it. I'd probably do well to have most of the classics which I have never read.
| Book Title: Outlander Series |
| Author: Diana Gabaldon |
| Book Title: Earth's Children Series |
| Author: Jean Auel |
Any books from Sweeping Sagas. Any of those long, detailed books about survial, love and destiny. I have reread several of them and they continue to amuse and enlighten.
Although I would be tempted to take Angela's Ashes, to remind myself that it could be worse.
| Book Title: The Last Light of the Sun |
| Author: Guy Gavriel Kay |
Because it's been sitting on my shelf since last Christmas and I haven't read it yet. And I love Kay's books. I can't understand why no one has made a movie out of any of them yet.
| Book Title: War and Peace |
| Author: Tolstoy |
It's wonderful, it's long and I haven't read it since high school.
| Book Title: Collapse |
| Author: Jared Diamond |
Another book I've wanted to get to for the longest time. And as long as I have all this time on my hands, I may as well challenge myself.
| Book Title: Life of Pi |
| Author: Yann Martel |
It's a wonderful story about a young man adrift on a boat in the middle of the ocean on a life raft with a bengal tiger. The ending makes you want to go back and read it all over again.
| Book Title: Lord of the Rings Trilogy |
| Author: J.R.R. Tolkien |
It's a wonderful story full of adventure, romance, and the power of loyalty and friendship.
| Book Title: Hunter's Moon |
| Author: Dana Stabenow |
A gripping tale of a woman's survival in the Alaskan wilderness, this book made me read all of Stabenow's novels.
| Book Title: Love in the Time of Cholera |
| Author: Gabriel Garcia Marequez |
One of the best books I've ever read. I've read it three times and still feel like I'd like to read it again.
| Book Title: The Fifth Business |
| Author: Robertson Davies |
I'd really like to include the entire Depford trilogy, but I've only a total of 3 choices. The writing is superb, the story riveting.
| Book Title: Atonement |
| Author: Ian McEwan |
The best contemporary book I've read in years. Again, great writing, great story.
Sandra Shwayder Sanchez's Picks
| Book Title: Cities of the Interior |
| Author: Anais Nin |
Its a long book and I never got around to reading it, what better time than while stranded on a deserted island?
| Book Title: Almanac of the Dead |
| Author: Leslie Marmon Silko |
Its a long book and I never got around to reading it, what better time than while stranded on a deserted island?
| Book Title: Moby Dick |
| Author: Herman Melville |
I cheated in school and skipped and skimmed through this one. Its been on the pile of books to read more carefully one of these days, for decades.
| Book Title: The Abhorsen Trilogy Box Set |
| Author: Garth Nix |
It's a wonderfully written fantasy with complex characters and interesting plot twists.
| Book Title: The Handmaid's Tale |
| Author: Margaret Atwood |
Might as well enjoy my time on the island since I hate water and/or island life would be a true torture. A well crafted story of the near future.
| Book Title: The House of the Spirits |
| Author: Isabel Allende |
Magic realism at its finest.
| Book Title: Very Good, Jeeves! |
| Author: P.G. Wodehouse |
If I'm stuck on a deserted island without imminent rescue then I need laughs, and lots of 'em.
| Book Title: Robinson Crusoe |
| Author: Daniel Defoe |
Seems appropriate to the the situation. I could definitely relate to the story.
| Book Title: The Complete Sherlock Holmes |
| Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
Mental stimulation. In order to get the little gray cells going---oops, that's the little Belgian guy.
| Book Title: The Good Earth |
| Author: Pearl Buck |
I read The Good Earth probably 35 years ago. It is written in an easy-to-read style, but deals with timeless questions of good vs. evil, young vs. old, old vs. new and so forth. At the time I had read nothing about China, particularly pre-revolutionary China, so I loved being exposed to the land, the culture, and the interesting characters.
| Book Title: Women of the Silk |
| Author: Gail Tsukiyama |
I was introduced to Gail personally, and her books, at the Maui Writers' Conference in 2003. I immediately loved her and her writing. I returned from the conference and read all of her books. I loved learning about the life and customs of China through the richly drawn characters of Gail's book. As the story opens, Pei is sent away from her rural childhood home to the city where she is forced to work in the silk factory from dawn to dusk. How Pei and the other young women cope with the changing political and economic times is fascinating and inspiring.
| Book Title: War and Peace |
| Author: Leo Tolstoy |
You said I'd be here for quite a while, right? So finally I'd have the time to read a 1,000 page book--and one that is worth devoting that kind of time to. I'd like to read War and Peace because it's often cited as the greatest book of fiction ever written. The central characters--four families--are living through times of monumental change in Russia and so we have the benefit of seeing how the families cope with the turmoil of their country as well as the promise of better times, and also the complexities of their family life--work, interpersonal relationships, births, marriages, death and so forth. It might be helpful in my predicament (stranded here on the beach) to read how others have survived major challenges and emerged stronger people.
| Book Title: Les Miserables |
| Author: Victor Hugo |
This is the longest novel I have ever completed and it is brilliant from beginning to end. It would be perfect for a deserted island because it is such a long read, and by the time I'll have gone through it once, I'll have forgotten the beginning and will be able to start it over again. Les Miserables is chock-full of wisdom, too, and it is all about dealing with circumstances beyond the control of humans. This wisdom would bring me solace on an isalnd all by myself.
| Book Title: Timequake |
| Author: Kurt Vonnegut |
Another novel about humans stuck in circumstances they cannot escape. Timequake is one of Vonnegut's later novels and it deals a lot with aging. I would be able to reread this novel over and over again and pick out new nuggets of wisdom as I grow older on the island.
| Book Title: Life of Pi |
| Author: Yann Martel |
This is the story of a boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger and how he survives. If Pi can survive on a lifeboat with a tiger, surely I can manage on an island all by myself. Life of Pi is an engaging story and I turn each page wondering how Pi will subsist. Hopefully some of Pi's survival tactics work for me.
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