This makes me think of desert island discs and is, I imagine, and equally difficult question! I mean, realistically, I’d want my Kindle and some kind of solar powered battery charger so I could have a few thousand to keep me busy until I was either rescued or died of starvation/was swept out to sea/got caught in a hurricane/got hit on the head with a fatally targeted coconut. But if I, for some unfathomable reason, had the prescience to pack ten books only, and the lack of practicality to make them real books, these are the ones I’d pick.
I’d definitely need some humour if I found myself in this situation, as well as some imaginary company. Jenny Lawson and Bill Bryson would give me some giggles, and if I needed to invent a companion to start talking to, I’d much prefer Jenny to a volleyball. Fierce Invalids is a completely wacky, out there book that is chock full of entertaining situations and a lot of intrigue. It would probably match my general mental state if I suddenly found myself in such a situation. Surreal and just totally weird. I think Charlie Mackesy’s book would give me a little bit of beauty, possibly even some hope.
I’ve not finished Washington Black yet, but from what I’ve read and heard about it, it’s a great adventure story with lots of wonderful character development and a cracking plot. That should do me. I’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude, but not for quite some time. So I think it would be a good one to revisit – it’s complex, has a lot of characters to keep track of and pretty long, but I know I’ll like it. The last two are both travel memoirs, and both completely transported me. Maybe in this situation that magical transport will become literal and take me to hang out with some gorillas or to travel through rural Peru. (These could potentially be swapped out with Under the Tuscan Sun, The Size of the World, and/or any of the Year In Provence books.)
Of course, it makes sense to have a few books that are long enough to keep you busy for a while. I keep meaning to tackle Infinite Jest again, so I think it would be a good one. The only down side is that I have heard there’s an online wiki that translates the made up words and I think to helps decipher some of the meaning, so it might be harder to read without access to a computer. If that seemed to be too much of an impediment, my replacement choice would be The Bone People which is one I’ve been meaning to try for ages, but have never made proper headway with. I might have the time… And finally, either War and Peace or Ulysses, because when else am I going to give them a try? Plus, I figure if it goes as badly as expected, they’d give me lots of paper to light fires with if things got that desperate. (I am not advocating book burning, and would normally NEVER do it no matter how frustrated I was. As evidenced by the fact that Ulysses is safely on my bookshelf right now. I’m just saying if it were me or the book, I’d consider it.)
Okay, that’s it for me! What about you guys? Which book(s) would you be most likely to take to a desert island? Have you read any of my picks?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
Love your choices this week! I went in a slightly different direction, but if I had played by the rules, Ulysses and Infinite Jest would probably make my list too. I mean, time has really been the only reason I haven’t picked them up yet. They’re the perfect stranded reads.
Thanks! I can’t say time is the ONLY reason I haven’t read these (I have tried, but I could make neither heads nor tails of Ulysses. I couldn’t even tell what the setting was in the first section, let alone what was happening! Made me feel rather unintelligent… probably more of a me issue), but it’s one of them. I feel as if I ought to read Infinite Jest – I started it, but got myself all intimidated and kind of psyched myself out. Maybe one day!
I definitely want to check out broken one of these days. Thanks for sharing!
Lauren @ Always Me
Oh I hope you do! I adore Jenny Lawson – she’s just so open and honest and incredibly funny at the same time. Not a combination I often come across!
I’ve not read any of these, but I liked your thought processes behind each of these!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/27/top-ten-tuesday-326/
Haha! Thank you!
Great list! I included War and Peace too. One Hundred Years of Solitude is on my TBR so one day I’ll read that too.
<a href=https://myexpandingbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/07/top-ten-tuesday-books-id-want-on-desert.html/”>My TTT
It took me a few tries, but I ended up loving One Hundred Years. War and Peace though… I lost track of the characters in the first ten pages and that was kind of it for me!
Exactly. Funny. Inspiration. And some long books.
Haha! That’s what I thought! Mostly I don’t want to get bored or run out of books I can re-read. Worse than starvation, that idea!
Yay for Ulysses – I had that on my list too because as well as being long it is brilliant and funny and moving! Harold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus are two of my favourite characters! And I hope you enjoy Washington Black – it is a great novel!
This is my TTT list of books I’d want with me – although I found it impossible to keep it to ten and am itching to add others to it!
I have to admit – I tried to read Ulysses and couldn’t make any sense of it at all. I couldn’t even figure out where the it was taking place. On a ship? In a mansion? No clue. Does it begin to make sense later on? Or am I just too dumb for it? Lol!