What would your Desert Island book be?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
February 5, 2018 5:32am CST
The BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs poses several questions to its guests, including:
"If you could take just one book to the desert island, excluding the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare (which are already there) what would it be?"
I have thought about this many times, and I come up with a different answer every time! Would it be a dictionary? A single-volume encyclopedia? A major work of literature that I have never got round to reading? Something scientific or philosophical that I promised myself that I would tackle one day but never have? Or maybe a long-held favourite that I would happily read time and time again?
What would be your choice of a book to be marooned with?
3 people like this
5 responses
@JolietJake (50190)
•
5 Feb 18
Okay, now that is a hard one to answer, truthfully.
I was gonna get sarcastic and say "The Complete and Unedited Tax Returns of Donald Trump" 
Do I want a long tome that will takes days to complete? A multi-volume epic loosely related story line? An exceedingly good short story for passing short stretches of time?
And what if it is only available as an e-book? Can I have a Kindle to read it?
Seriously good question, to be honest.
And I truthfully can't pick one.
Do I want a long tome that will takes days to complete? A multi-volume epic loosely related story line? An exceedingly good short story for passing short stretches of time?
And what if it is only available as an e-book? Can I have a Kindle to read it?
Seriously good question, to be honest.
And I truthfully can't pick one.1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
5 Feb 18
Desert Island Discs has been going since 1942 - long before the e-book was invented! Your Kindle would have to be solar powered, and you won't be allowed to cheat by loading more than one book onto it!
Oh, and I don't think "multi-volume" would be allowed!
1 person likes this
@JolietJake (50190)
•
5 Feb 18
@indexer So no Lord Of The Rings trilogy...or the 5 volumes in the 'Hitchhiker's Guide' trilogy unless they are in one cover...m'kay.
Actually many of the music groups I am in do a DID sometimes, of course with that it is actually discs...records.
I wanna go with something familiar...like Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, which always tops my list of 'favorite' books...but there are so many I want to read in the future, so maybe I should pick one of them.
Like I say...can't really pick one.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
5 Feb 18
@JolietJake I have a "three in one" copy of Lord of the Rings, so that would not be a problem. There are also single volume editions of the "trilogy in five parts".
1 person likes this
@tristanex (35)
• United States
9 Feb 18
That's really difficult. I would take The Decameron from Boccaccio. I don't remember the stories anymore, but know the book is big and had different stories, so guess, it would not get boring too fast.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
5 Feb 18
That's the rule of the game! The main point of the programme is to select eight pieces of music that you would not want to be without. The book is an "extra" as is the "luxury" that guests are asked to choose.
@changjiangzhibin89 (16978)
• China
5 Feb 18
The first one that crosses my mind is Shiji -The Records of the Chinese Grand Historian finished around 94 BC by the Han dynasty official Sima Qian.I would never feel bored reading it on the Desert Island .
