I guess this post spins out of watching the TV show “Lost” and a post by Isaac Laquedem a while back. The question is, what three books would you take with you if you were stranded on a desert isle? (Isaac’s post considers five books; do that if you can’t keep yourself to three.)
My tentative picks would be:
- Les Miserables. No, not in the original French; I like my massive English paperback edition. I haven’t even finished this book, so it would occupy me for a while.
- Either The Stand or Cryptonomicon.
- Probably an anthology of some sort. Something like The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, or maybe The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
Of course, if I were practical, I’d choose an all-purpose survival guide, a book on identifying plants (edible and poisonous), that sort of thing.
Or, better yet, go with this book:
