The Bible and Shakespeare and?

[MissAustenMadeAQuilt]

Listening to the books people choose on Desert Island Discs. They get the Bible, the Collected Works of Shakespeare and one other.

If you had these, what would your choice of one other be? Collected works not allowed.

I think mine would be Bleak House because I could always find something new in it on each reading and it's long!

I will probably have a different choice tomorrow because I love so many.

Mine would be "The Romanovs" by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It's a history book, but written so pacily that it reads like a thriller. I've already read it 3 times, but I know I'd enjoy reading it over and over, plus I'd notice new stuff every time.

And I know we're only allowed one book, but if I were to pick fiction it would be "The Pursuit of Love" by Nancy Mitford, because it's just so funny, and I've loved it for 40+ years.

Ive often considered this and every time come back to Herodotus The Histories. A translation, not the Greek! Its a feast of a book.

This question always makes me anxious! How long are you on the island?

The Faraway Tree to relive childhood memories or The Secret Garden or Pollyanna, or What Katy Did or Heidi… so many!

If an adult book, then probably Great Expectations or Where the Crawdads Sing maybe? Or perhaps a Roddy Doyle as they are entertaining and I need to reread them.

No Shakespeare though please, I live in his hometown so I’m all Shakespeared out!

I think it's for the rest of your days isn't it.

@Miranda65 picked a fiction and a non fiction-should we go with that?

It's a pity you're Shakespeared out @PurpleLovecats but I don't think there should be a substitute, although you can don't have to take it!

People have had it - Ian Rankin I think.

It’s not overwhelming - if you’re tempted, give it a try. It’s really immersive, funny, sad, and the luxury of the length lets the characters weave their way through the story at leisure, appearing in unexpected combinations and guises. It’s very much a chunk of upper-class life, which is what makes it believable that the characters keep reappearing in the way they do, but the narrator always feels like a bit of an outsider and it’s also fun that lots of characters are loosely based on real people.

It would have to be Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu as the only way I'm going to have the patience to read that would be if I was stranded on an island for eternity.

There are so many multitudes in the Bible and Shakespeare that I’m tempted to pick on a whim something I haven’t read before, or something really short like The Great Gatsby for the contrast. I suppose it would have to be one of the great Russian novels though. Let’s say War and Peace.

Interesting to see so much discussion of A Dance To The Music Of Time. I read the series a couple of years ago but it didn’t really work for me at all. There seemed not that much to it, in the end. Brideshead Revisited takes place in a similar world but is so much more complete.

Stephen king’s The Stand. One of my favourite books and it’s very long so should keep me busy!

Ok. I'll try it. I've just ordered the first one! 😁Thanks.

Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett (book 6 of the Lymond series). There are 5 others in this particular series, but I have all those in my head and could manage without them if I couldn't sneak them from the waves fast enough, and the last book is nigh on perfection.

Your raft will be checked before you disembark, @mimbleandlittlemy

You are a hard, hard woman @MissAustenMadeAQuilt

Mine would also have to be Pride and Prejudice. Arghh, or maybe Anne of the Island. Good point about the PGW though, and going out laughing. PGW would be more comforting on a desert island than anything else probably...

You can't include the collected Shakespeare and then rule that collected works can't be cited. So, The Collected Works of Jane Austen, of course!

Failling that: The Dummy's Guide to Boat-Building.

High Stakes by Dick Francis.

You weren't expecting that, were you?

You're allowed collected works. Jojo Moyes just took all Dostoyevski. It doesn't have to be the Bible if you are of another faith or an atheist. I would take Tristram Shandy for the lols, or a teach yourself a language book to keep busy.

Can atheists take something instead of a holy book?

In that case, I’ll have the Larkin as my ‘bible’ plus The Dark Tower series. If I’m also allowed a supply of fresh bread and good cheese and some Earl grey, I’ll be all set.

I don't think so.

No, you can substitute The Bible for The Koran.

Some very bolshy posters insisting on taking Collected Works. You can take them @FuckRealityBringMeABook , @MsAmerica but all but one will be dropped into the sea when you arrive at the island.

You're right @justtheotheronemrswembley I wasn't expecting Dick Francis to make the final cut!

Anna Karenina

The Foundling -- Georgette Heyer.
I reread all her books every 5 years or so, especially if I am down in the dumps for some reason, but that one is my favourite.

Yes! An English-French dictionary. To while away the time, translating the Bible and Shakespeare into French 😂

As a French teacher, I applaud you! It would need to be a very, very comprehensive dictionary...

East of Eden or Gone with the Wind