I've hesitated doing a list like this, because I'm terrible at them. Picking just five books to be stranded with on a desert island is as bizarre a hypothetical as it is common. When you boil it down, it's essentially My Five Favorite Books. Except, it isn't.
Assuming I can really take 6 (in order to exclude the Bible) and neglecting the requisite "smart" choice of How to Survive on a Desert Island, here are the five books I'd take with me:
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. John Calvin's Complete Commentaries on the Bible
(I'm going to list this multi-volume set as one book. Because I can. This will likely be the cause of sinking the boat anyway.)
3. The Pleasures of God by John Piper
4. The Confessions of St. Augustine
5. C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy
How 'bout you? Deserted island. Five books. Bible's a given. Blah blah blah.
8 comments:
You didn't put the Bible on the list? What's wrong with you? ;-)
I agree with LOTR.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Jared Wilson's Black Dog Man.
Can I say the Harry Potter set?
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Black Dog Man? Seriously?
I wish I had prizes to give out for flattery. :-)
Yeah. It's a nice long book and there's plenty to dig into. And maybe I'd pretend I was book editor and edit it since I had the time. ;-)
And maybe I'd proofread my comments a little more often, too.
I'd prefer City of God to the Confessions. It's much longer, much more substantive, repays multiple readings more fully, and covers far more topics.
I just addressed this age-old and always fun question back at my own blog. Also, I left you with a further question: if you could bring a sixth book, but it had to be something you've never read before, what would it be?
Jeremy, I've read both and generally agree with you. But I'd take the Confessions to a desert island with me. I think I'd profit more from the Psalmic nature of them in my solitude.
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Bob: Not sure. A big fat novel of some kind, probably. Moby Dick, maybe? War and Peace?
Hmmm.
1, Johnathan Kellerman
2. A.W. Tozer
3. Book on building tools and shelter
4. Finding and preparing food in that regions of the world
5. A book on shipbuilding
They aren't really favorites, but they'll help me/us survive, get us off the island so I can get back to a place where favorite books are available.
Bene D
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