Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new ‘top ten’ challenge is posted – anyone can join in. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’d Want On A Deserted Island. So apart from the obvious choice – 101 Recipes for Coconuts – here are the books I’d have with me (in no particular order):
1. Winnie-the Pooh: Complete Collection of Stories and Poems by A.A. Milne – because Winnie-the-Pooh is so wise and never fails to make me laugh *please note that I am a Disney-free-zone when it comes to Winnie*
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – it makes me think big, lush and decadent thoughts… probably quite handy if all you’re doing is looking at coconuts.
3. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster – a perfect love story in every possible way.
4. Is there such a thing as The Collected Works of John Irving yet? No… Well I’m torn between The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany and Last Night at Twisted River – all John Irving at his brilliant best.
5. Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett – the saddest story I’ve ever read. Sometimes you need a little cry.
6. The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander – if I was only allowed one cookbook, this would be it. There’s no food-porn photography but it is packed full with recipes for every ingredient you can imagine (all organised alphabetically by ingredient). If you can’t whip up a Bocconcini, Tomato and Basil Salad or a Strawberry Shortcake, at least you can think about it.
7. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver – because almost ten years after first reading this book, I still need to talk about it.
8. The dictionary – there’s always a new word to learn.
9. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll – I’ll never tire of reading Alice.
I’m definitely with you on Gatsby. That book gets better every time I read it.
I re-read it every couple of years – it never gets old!
It IS wonderful. But it’s too short! Desert island books need to susatin you for years – they have to be at least 500 pages each!
Ha ha – yes, I probably should have picked some really long books!
You made me laugh with the mention of coconut recipes:)
I like your list a lot. Winnie is an especially good pick that I would never have thought of. Gatsby would be on my list. I’d probably choose a poetry anthology also.
Knowing my luck, any island I was stranded on would not be the beautiful, tropical, loads-of-coconuts variety!
I still have to read Winnie-the-Pooh! I guess that would make it a good pick for me, too!
I am definitely with you on the dictionary! I love words, it would last a long time, and I would have such a great vocabulary once rescued.
Winnie the Pooh has it all in my opinion – funny, wise, sweet – words to live by!
The dictionary is such a great idea. I read a great book called Reading the OED where a guy spent an entire year reading all 8 billion volumes of the omplete OED and picking out his faves from the new words he’d learnt.
Winnie the Pooh is a lovely choice, because i’ts like a kind of philosophy book too. You should start a blog called “We Need to Talk about ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ “. I am too scared to read that book; it sounds so disturbing.
Here’s my desert island list
http://annabelsmith.tumblr.com/post/33157799448/top-10-tuesday-desert-island-books but I wrote that only a month ago so I made another list for today:
http://annabelsmith.tumblr.com/post/35614437489/top-10-tuesday-sibling-rivalry
You NEED to read ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ – scary but so, so powerful (and yes, it would be a top name for a blog!)
I adore Winnie the Pooh and Through the Looking Glass! Here’s my TTT: http://aliceinreaderland.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/top-ten-books-id-want-on-a-deserted-island/
Alice @ Alice in Readerland
There will be a collected works of John Irving! I just don’t know when…I always forget about The Great Gatsby, it’s not one that has ever stuck with me (despite liking it). I didn’t include A Room with a View for my love story, I chose Jane Eyre instead – it was tough!
I read A Room With A View just recently! And I agree about We Need To Talk About Kevin, there’s so many things I could still find in that book
If you’ve read Room with a View you can now see the film. It’s stunning (and does the book justice).
Love your list! I didn’t even think about putting some classics on my packing list! But they should!
My TTT / 200 Followers Giveaway
I perhaps should have gone for some longer classics (like Les Mis) that would keep me reading for a loooooonnnnnng time!
Winnie the Pooh & Alice! Totally agree 🙂
TTT@thedailyprophecy.
Love this list. Great choices. Thanks for stopping by my TTT.
Winnie-the Pooh <3
And I just got The Great Gatsby from the library. Hope I'll like it too 🙂
I’m sure you will! (Read it before the new movie version is released!)
Winnie the Pooh is an awesome choice! So is The Great Gatsby. Love your list!