Ten Volumes To Take Into Exile

[David]

You are being exiled to a lonely island for life. You may take ten one-volume books with you. What do you take?


Here's what I take:

Rameau's Nephew (Diderot)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (James)
Romanticism & the Modern Ego (Barzun)
The Riverside Shakespeare (1st ed.)
1846: The Year of Decision (De Voto)
The English Constitution (Bagehot)
To the Finland Station (Wilson)
The Great Plains (Prescott Webb)
Bleak House (Dickens)
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior

[buckymcnix]

Originally Posted by David

You are being exiled to a lonely island for life. You may take ten one-volume books with you. What do you take?


Here's what I take:

Rameau's Nephew (Diderot)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (James)
Romanticism & the Modern Ego (Barzun)
The Riverside Shakespeare (1st ed.)
1846: The Year of Decision (De Voto)
The English Constitution (Bagehot)
To the Finland Station (Wilson)
The Great Plains (Prescott Webb)
Bleak House (Dickens)
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior

well i am in for the Redbone reunion show but I won't be borrowing many of your books - that's for sure.



especially funny to me, if you don't mind me saying, is the Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior when you are living a life of exile.
I say "Go Nuts". Be rude as hell.

as for ten that i would bring, jeebus, I don't know. If there is absolutely no way that i can cash my ten books in for my guitar, then I would say that books 1-3 would have to be:
Self Medical Procedures for dummies.
Self Dental for dummies.
Gardening as if Your Life Depended On It For Dummies.

beyond that I struggle.
most of what i read is current events, which certainly doesn't translate well into a long term situation.

I have a throwaway book about the feud between bette davis and joan crawford that has kept me laughing for years. I would leave this one by the outhouse so i can just pick up at any point and start reading.

ok that's four.
steven hawking's "black holes . . . " essays book maybe for number 5.

Oh number 6 and number 9 would be "Analyzing 70's Porn" and "The joys of 80's Porn" respectively.

7, 8 and 10 I will just ask friends to get me some really BIG LONG SLOW READ books for the christmas before the exile.



(ok -so i couldn't really think of any so i just got goofy- sorry david. )

[strandinthewind]

Intereting:

1. Swanson on Swanson - Gloria Swanson

2. The Alienst - Caleb Carr

3. The Witching Hour - Anne Rice

4. The Merk Manual

5. A big red dic. -- maybe Oxford

6. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

7. The Joy of Cooking - Raumbauer

8. The Lord of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkein

9. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

10. The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson
_______________________________________________

David - I like the choice of a manners books - but I am afraid if I were alone, I would not dress for dinner, though my use of the palm tree flatware would remain exceeding correct.

[Sarah]

I would take 10 blank journals and a pen, because reading pretentious novels bores the **** out of me, and living alone on an island would already be boring.

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by Sarah

I would take 10 blank journals and a pen, because reading pretentious novels bores the **** out of me, and living alone on an island would already be boring.

Who said they had to be pretentious? There ARE books in existence where you can get something different out of it every time you read it. And maybe not even that, but you can enjoy it every time you read it. Well, that happens for me anyway. Lord of the Rings specifically comes to mind.

1) The Lord of the Rings (need I say more?)

2) The Never Ending Story (this story is just fantastical perfection)

3) Kingdom Come (Beautiful art and a timely story)

4) Watchmen (pure genius)

5) The Dark Knight Returns (Gotta love Miller's Batman)

6) The Holy Bible (any version I reckon)

7) The Chronicles of Narnia (it does exist in one volume!)

8) The Hobbit (i guess i needed to pick this one since LOTR is up there)

9) The Silmarillion (such a beautiful book...can you see a pattern yet?)

10) The Once and Future King by T.H. White

--I realize this post is really a "top ten favorite" books...and for me it was neary impossible to do so; but I did my best.

[gldstwmn]

The Language of Letting Go - Melody Beattie

When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? - George Carlin

The Tao Te Ching - Lao-tzu

Merriam Webster unabridged dictionary

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

Chronicles vol 1 - Bob Dylan

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Sarah

I would take 10 blank journals and a pen, because reading pretentious novels bores the **** out of me, and living alone on an island would already be boring.

I find they do not pretend

Also - I think it funny how when people say they like something that most are not into or that thing is considered esoteric, it and, likely, they are labeld as pretentious. Interestingly, the people who would choose only some dime store romance with Faio on the cover likely would consider most literature that costs over $0.10 pretentious. People like what they like and usually they like it without pretext

[tuigirl]

Originally Posted by David

You are being exiled to a lonely island for life. You may take ten one-volume books with you. What do you take?

Gee I dunno David....I think a lonely island for life sounds quite cool...I could def do that...I think I'd be too busy to be able to sit down and actually read!!! but if I did..then I'd have to go with at least
1) Swiss family Robinson (prob my all time fav)
2 and 3) Quentin Derward and another Sir Walter Scott novel (they take FOREVER to read)
...hmmmm...and 4) John someones (I've forgotten his name) Guide to self sufficiency (I've had it years) for those helpful hints....
Thats about it...I'd be really stretching to take 10 tomes!

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I find they do not pretend

Also - I think it funny how when people say they like something that most are not into or that thing is considered esoteric, it and, likely, they are labeld as pretentious. Interestingly, the people who would choose only some dime store romance with Faio on the cover likely would consider most literature that costs over $0.10 pretentious. People like what they like and usually they like it without pretext

Seriously? Check this **** at the door, because I don't care. Don't even pretend like I'm jumping all over someone else for what they've selected when in reality, you're trying to crawl up my ass for what I said I'd prefer.

I didn't reference anyone else's selections. I said that I'd take my own books to write in because I'd get bored with pretentious novels. Fiction has almost always bored me. I would rather write something of my own.

BESIDES. Documenting the rest of your life in exile could potentially make interesting reading for someone else. There's a lot of time for thinking and exploring your own mind in this hypothetical situation... why clutter those thoughts with someone else's bull****?

[strandinthewind]

^^^^

I thought you were taking jab at the selections posted. If not, I apologize.

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by Sarah

Seriously? Check this **** at the door, because I don't care. Don't even pretend like I'm jumping all over someone else for what they've selected when in reality, you're trying to crawl up my ass for what I said I'd prefer.

I wonder what they'd find up there?

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

^^^^

I thought you were taking jab at the selections posted. If not, I apologize.

No. I was not. If I was, I'd admit to it now. But I really don't care what other people read.

I wonder what they'd find up there?

omg. I know you didn't just. Not funny. Not witty. Give up now.

If I ever see you in person anywhere, I'm going to punch you directly in the face. So the next time Fleetwood Mac tours... just be on your six. Cuz.. you neeeeever know. The beast lurks in the darkness... master of disguise...

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by Sarah

No. I was not. If I was, I'd admit to it now. But I really don't care what other people read.


omg. I know you didn't just. Not funny. Not witty. Give up now.

If I ever see you in person anywhere, I'm going to punch you directly in the face. So the next time Fleetwood Mac tours... just be on your six. Cuz.. you neeeeever know. The beast lurks in the darkness... master of disguise...

HA! Aw come on, you walked right into that one. Sometimes I wonder where your sense of humour has gone!

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Sarah

. . . If I ever see you in person anywhere, I'm going to punch you directly in the face. So the next time Fleetwood Mac tours... just be on your six. Cuz.. you neeeeever know. The beast lurks in the darkness... master of disguise...

1. I hear you can do that in some Midwestern state and not get in trouble.

2. I think you should find out what's up or been in his a$$

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

HA! Aw come on, you walked right into that one. Sometimes I wonder where your sense of humour has gone!

I offered it as a personal sacrifice to Satan, my great, dark overlord.

-_-