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Original poster

If you could take only 5 books to a desert island...

28 replies

naomi83 · 24/05/2009 18:16

what would they be?
my current choices would be:

Time traveller's wife

The lovely bones

A thousand splendid suns

Water for elephants

And little women

OP posts:
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skramble · 25/05/2009 23:32

How to make a raft manual- The desert island edition.

Girls guide to hunting and fishing, the real guide.

Encyclopidia of wild plants and their uses.

Building light aroeplanes from tropicals plants for beginners.

The amatuer's guide to survival and attracting rescue on a desert island.

Pogleswood · 25/05/2009 23:27

Effie,don't want to be misleading as it's possible that they are only published as a collection now.(My copy was my Grandma's,so I'm a bit out of date!) If the name Pussy Wintergammon means anything to you ,you've already read it...!

EffiePerine · 25/05/2009 23:18

There are more Provincial Lady books? Thank you for making my evening

Pogleswood · 25/05/2009 23:13

The Diary of a Provincial Lady (actually the collection, to get The Provincial Lady in War Time..)

The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge(or the 3 Eliot books in one volume if possible)

War and Peace

Gaudy Night

The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

(or maybe not - isn't it hard to choose?!)

snigger · 25/05/2009 21:54

Sorry, Monty.

Jux · 25/05/2009 21:35

The Deptford Trilogy, Robertson Davies (in one volume so it doesn't count as 3!)
The Business, Iain Banks
The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon

(Can I have one more? Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley)

Mintyy · 25/05/2009 21:33

Nigella Lawson: How To Eat

Kenneth Williams: Diaries

Peter Ackroyd: Hawkesmoor

Rose Tremain: Restoration

The latest Barbara Vine

EffiePerine · 25/05/2009 21:28

montmorency would Not Approve

snigger · 25/05/2009 20:47

ROFLing rather hard at 3 men in a boar - sounds a bit porny

RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 25/05/2009 20:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

snigger · 25/05/2009 20:39

Midge, you are the antithesis of me.

I now long to understand you.

How can anyone need to take An Instance of the Fingerpost (dire dire child on a muck heap direness) AND Secret History (Oh God, where do I start) and read them perpetually??

I'd but I'm too busy being baffled.

I've tried with every book on your list and each and every one has left me depressed and lonely - explain?

EffiePerine · 25/05/2009 20:37

BOAT

EffiePerine · 25/05/2009 20:37

ooh 3 men in a boar

[considers ditching Shakespeare]

EffiePerine · 25/05/2009 20:35

hum

if we're talking volumes

the complete Sherlock Holmes
Brideshead Revisited
Collected short stories of Saki
John Donne's collected works
Shakespeare's collected works

think I could live with that

Midge25 · 25/05/2009 20:25

Tonight's top 3 would be:

Cats Eye - Margaret Atwood
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

If you asked me next week I would say:

An Instance of the Fingerpost - Ian Pears
Under the Skin - Michel Faber
The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Limiting myself to 3 is impossible!

nevergoogledragonbutter · 25/05/2009 10:03

How to build a pc and internet connection using sticks and leaves.

snigger · 25/05/2009 10:01

Pride and Predjudice

Three Men in a Boat

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Larousse Gastronomique (something to flick through while gnawing my chargrilled rat)

The collected works of Ray Mears.

Karam · 25/05/2009 09:56

LOl, This was my 'A' level English exam question 15 years ago!

wiggletastic · 24/05/2009 21:29

That is far too difficult a question! Only five books? How awful.

janeite · 24/05/2009 21:25

Oh if I'm allowed complete works I'll take:

Complete works of JA including 'Mansfield Park'
Complete works of Ibsen
Complete poems of Larkin
Lord Of The Rings
All of the Harry Potters

boudoiricca · 24/05/2009 19:34

Regeneration trilogy (Pat Barker)
Any Human Heart (William Boyd)
Rivals (Jilly Cooper)

errmmm...

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

Something pracical and obscure, I guess...

basic · 24/05/2009 19:26

Oxford History of England
Complete works of Georges Simenon
The selfish gene (R Dawkins)
the great terror (Robert Conquest)
The Tony Benn diaries

I plan to be prepared for a long stay!

oodlesofpoodles · 24/05/2009 19:19

Pride and Prejudice

The God of Small Things

Jane Eyre

HP and the Goblet of Fire

Wild Swans because its so big

lljkk · 24/05/2009 19:06

An Argos Catalog.
A very detailed annotated copy of the Koran (in English!!)
Stephen Hawking book (something I'd have to read a lot and slowly to get)
War and Peace
I'd like something practical for the 5gth book, like a Botany guide, but failing that I'd like something very cheerful or uplifting.

Anything but "The complete works of" XXXX.

blametheparents · 24/05/2009 18:50

I seem to like books beginning with 'W'