If you had to select just one book that has had the most impact on your thinking, what is it.

[Seb]

A tough question.

Explanation: We have a Radio 4 show here in the UK called 'Desert Island Discs'. Stranded on a desert island, the guest has to select 7 pieces of music to take with them. Right at the end, they are told, "You have the Bible and Shakespeare, what one other book would you take?"

So, that's the idea here. What one other book would you take.

I'm going to have a lie down and think about this for awhile.

Best wishes


Seb

[K.A.]

I don't have to think about it - I read a lot of philosphy - "The Road Less Traveled" by Scott Peck.

Fiction doesn't give me the same insight.

[Sjm]

Can I bring my Kindle and some sort of solar-powered battery charger? Okay, I know that's 'cheating', but this question does become more challenging to answer as DTBs begin to have a less prominent place in our lives. If it's just one book, I have to really give this some thought also. There are books that I have loved more than any others, but that I wouldn't necessarily want to read daily. Can I assume that the book of Shakespeare is a complete works? Thanks goodness for it.

Just one other book? Hmmm....

[Claudine]

Oh gosh this is difficult.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings I suppose. I read it when I was around 8 or 9 and it shaped my love of fantasy and sci-fi, which I have been reading now for 32 years.

I'd use the bible to start the first fire but keep the Shakespeare.

[Andre Jute]

Claudine wrote: "Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ... shaped my love of fantasy and sci-fi. I'd use the bible to start the first fire but keep the Shakespeare."

You have that the wrong way round, Claudine.

I'd burn the Shakespeare as bad history, and read the bible as great science fiction. All those winged beings bathed in unearthly light? The voice in the burning bush?

[Andre Jute]

I know it isn't fashionable (anybody who thinks I give a damn is cordially invited to think again), but Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was hugely influential on me, and probably caused me to become a sound-money economist. It's also a meaty read simply as a story, and I imagine on a desert island there will be plenty of time for reading. Hallelujah.

The other book I would have to consider is A Theory of Justice: Original Edition John Rawls, which shaped the rest of my outlook. (EDIT: Kat, you know this one?)

Yah, I know they're not compatible choices. But it seems to me that, on a desert island, much of my attention woud be on which of my fellow-inhabitants I would eat next, and Rawls would be pertinent, as his book sets out to answer the question: "How can one reconcile biological differences with social justice?"

(As a survivor, in real life, rather than any book, I would want my Carhartt padded overalls or at least my cashmere overcoat. See, I know how cold it gets in deserts.)

[Claudine]

You have a point there about cashmere in the desert Andre.

Nah the bible is horrendous! Very badly written and littered with editorial issues too numerous to make me want to even attempt an edit.

If I had a choice between the bible and another philosphical book, I'd pick Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer. Much better read than the bible.

[Sjm]

Okay, here's what I did. I pretended I was on the Titanic, in the DTB library, preparing to board a tiny boat. I went into my actual DTB library and had a look around. Which of these books would I grab in a hurry and be happy with? I looked at all of the fiction and non-fiction, the university textbooks - my Social Deviance text could come in handy - and finally settled on an anthology of fiction.

I don't care if it's cheating! I can't read just one person's words for eternity. This anthology has short works by Asimov, Stephen Leacock, and Poe. Somewhere in my library I have an anthology that includes some of my favourite short stories by authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and James Joyce. I would have preferred this one, but I couldn't find it (time to clean out the library).

[[deleted user]]

"The Book Thief." I think the whole world should read this book.

[James]

This topic seems to call for a non-fiction title somehow. I think on a desert island, particularly if we end up eating each other as Andre suggests, a bit of game theory would come in handy, so I'll say 'The Prisoner's Dilemma' by William Poundstone.

[Claudine]

James said : This topic seems to call for a non-fiction title somehow. I think on a desert island, particularly if we end up eating each other as Andre suggests, a bit of game theory would come in handy, so I'll say 'The Prisoner's Dilemma' by William Poundstone.

Maybe a recipe book on how to properly prepare human flesh....

[Sjm]

... or maybe some Dale Carnegie books like: "How To Win Friends And Influence People."

ETA: Gawd, I hope you people know I'm kidding!

[Andre Jute]

Sjm wrote: "... or maybe some Dale Carnegie books like: "How To Win Friends And Influence People."

ETA: Gawd, I hope you people know I'm kidding!"

Thank God there are no smileys here!

[Sjm]

Andre wrote: "Thank God there are no smileys here!"

I'm not sure how I feel about that, Andre. :/

[James]

Good; I hate smileys. I've had a previous (mild-mannered) rant on one of the over-moderated forums I first encountered Andre on.

[Seb]

I've had my lie down. It's difficult. Who came up with this! : )

For the quality of his writing and the clear power of his imagination, I think I have to go with something by Ray Bradbury. He must be over 90 now. But back in the 50s he was writing short stories that said so much with such economy that they still take my breath away today.

I'm re-reading his 'The Martian Chronicles' again now. You always fear that a book you read and admired 50 years ago won't stand up. But it does, for me anyway.

And he's picked up on that neat German idea of having a series of separately published short stories that when brought together make a novel.

(The only regret is that in the latest published edition the references to where the original stories were published have been removed. Oh, and the fact that Ray Bradbury is not available on kindle)

[Seb]

Claudine wrote: "James said : This topic seems to call for a non-fiction title somehow. I think on a desert island, particularly if we end up eating each other as Andre suggests, a bit of game theory would come in ..."

Or maybe William Golding's 'Lord Of The Flies as a reminder of how things could go terribly wrong! ; )

[Andre Jute]

Seb wrote: "I've had my lie down. It's difficult. Who came up with this! : )

For the quality of his writing and the clear power of his imagination, I think I have to go with something by Ray Bradbury. He mus..."

I don't suppose we'll get any Scientologists here, but they would consider you an heretic, Seb.

Imagine the effect of Ray Bradbury, or any other good sci-fi writer, as the founding text of the race that will shoot up on this desert island if you find something to breed with.

Scientology is the Supercargo Cult, definitely surplus to requirements. (Always wanted an opportunity to say that!)

[Seb]

Andre

Interesting train of thought. Checking Ray Bradbury's wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brad...

I don't see any reference to Scientology (thank goodness!). Perhaps I am interpreting you too literally. (lol)

However, one reference that I was unaware of is:

"Ray is also directly descended from Mary Bradbury who was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. She was married to Captain Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts."

Now that does surprise me!

[Will]

This is really tough. I can't pick one fiction book because I seem to go through periods when I focus on one writer. I remember liking Asimov, and Stephen King, and Twain, but I mostly remember reading and rereading my Dad's old set of encyclopedias before we had the Internet.

[Christopher]

The Bible and Shakespeare? Didn't old William of Mr. Bacon or Anonymous (if you give any credence to Roland Emmerich, which I do not) quote quite liberally from the Bible in his plays? I think it'd be difficult to completely understand Shakespeare without having a good working knowledge of the Bible (whether you believe it or not).

Third book: the best survivalist guide on the market (hopefully contains diy boat-building).

[Andre Jute]

Seb wrote: "Andre

Interesting train of thought. Checking Ray Bradbury's wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brad...

I don't see any reference to Scientology (thank goodness!)."

Just a joke, Seb. Or a synapse misfiring. The founder of Scientology was the science fiction writer, L Ron Hubbard. I just happen think that Bradbury or Clarke has a better claim to founding a religion. Or Asimov, with his commandments for robots.

[Patricia]

I'd want a blank journal and a pen.

[Claudine]

Andre, I think you are right there. Especially about Asimov.

[Neil]

I've heard some people on Desert Island disks waive the bible for something else, thereby getting two books in. I think I'd probably try that too. I'd pretend I was a Buddhist and take something like 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' in (I know it isn't a Buddhist text but it has Zen in the title, I reckon I could fool them with that). And then for my real choice I'd take the collected stories of Raymond Carver.

For my luxury item I'd take the world's biggest blank notebook and a pen. So then it would just be a case of trying to whittle my favourite songs down to eight...

[Mehry]

Maybe One Hundred Years of Solitude. I've never read it but a book about somebody else's loneliness would make good reading on a desert island.

[Sjm]

Patricia Sierra wrote: "I'd want a blank journal and a pen."

Patricia and Neil, if it comes down to it, we can always try soaking The Bible in the ocean, bleaching it in the sun and writing on its pages. Oh, the blasphemy!

P.S. I'll be bartering blank pages and pens in exchange for my life. Please don't eat me!

[James]

So, just to recap, the idea of this thread is to find people who admit to 'robust conversation' (i.e. picky, argumentative people) and put them all on a desert island together and see what happens..?

This will be *worse* than Lord Of The Flies.

[Sjm]

Who you callin' Picky and Argumentative, Lunch?

[Seb]

I like Sjm's sense of humour! And the fact that Sjm has control of the publishing business on the island - via control of the paper supply! Clever stuff! ; )

[James]

Surely we'll have e-readers and not need paper on this Utopia of ours?

[Andre Jute]

James wrote: "Surely we'll have e-readers and not need paper on this Utopia of ours?"

There's a shaggy dog story sent to me by Peter Allen in Melbourne a few months ago. Don't worry, I won't tell it all, just the highlights.

This fellow is stranded on a desert island. He has a rough time of it, living miserably up palm trees while voracious, toothy animals prowl below. His clothes are in rags and he's starving. Eventually he is found by the only other inhabitant of the islands, shipwrecked earlier, a beautiful, clever, handy woman, who has built a house with running water. She lets him shower and she gives him clean clothes that she wove from palm fibre (don't argue or this could become very long), and she feeds him steak she butchered from Charolais cattle that swam ashore from another shipwreck, and she even has liquor she brewed from coconuts and hearts of palm (don't argue or this could becomes even longer).

Finally she leans over him and says breathily, "Now, is there anything else you're missing?"

"Yes," he says, looking up at her eagerly, "you wouldn't happen to have rigged up a computer, would you? I'm dying to check my e-mail."

[Patricia]

Which reminds me of the Pulitzers announced today. Anybody read The Shallows? Apparently, it's about the mess computers are making of our minds. I hovered over the buy button on Amazon for a while today but couldn't quite make myself complete the transaction. I know the computer has changed my brain, and not for the better, but I'm not sure I want to dwell on it.

[Claudine]

Patricia, I am sure television has completely destroyed our minds which makes me believe that the little bit remaining will not be too damaged by the internet :D

James, I hear human flesh tastes like pork so I'd probably be sitting there watching you and everyone else wondering just how to debone the leg, stuff it with stuff and marinate in tequila for a good pork roast.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the...

[Patricia]

Claudine, I agree about TV. I had my cable TV disconnected in December or January (I can't remember which, but would have remembered before technology destroyed my mind), and haven't missed it for a moment. But that's only because I am now streaming movies from Netflix. I figure if I concentrate on a lengthy story rather than the shotgun headlines coming out of cable news, I'll end up healthier and/or happier.

[Claudine]

We watch far too many sports to ever give up on cable. The regular, semi government run channels are broke so they can't buy the rights to show sporting events while the cable company does.

[Patricia]

I never watched sports because I was afraid doing so would cause me to get out of my chair and, you know, move...

[Claudine]

LOL! I move alright! But it's mostly to shout all over the ref, the touch judges and the damn players! We worship the rugby ball in our house.

[Andre Jute]

I love the internet. When I researched IDITAROD, I very nearly died three times in trail and flying incidents. But earlier this year I spent ten days virtually at the extraordinary 2011 race on the net, sitting in a comfortable chair in a warm room, surrounded by wonderful new friends I made, and was much, much better informed about what was happening than if I were there, risking my life plane-hopping from checkpoint to checkpoint, being uncomfortable and sleep-deprived (you might nap two hours a day for ten or twelve days at a stretch -- it affects your judgment in a place where the smallest misjudgment can kill you).

That has to be a net gain, I think.

As for computers themselves, they're just tools. I'm not a luddite.

[Andre Jute]

Claudine wrote: "LOL! I move alright! But it's mostly to shout all over the ref, the touch judges and the damn players! We worship the rugby ball in our house."

In the house of one of my teachers one Saturday afternoon, before television, us children, playing cards for money (streng verboten!) on the veranda because we knew the adults wouldn't appear until the game was over, suddenly heard him jump up from the radio and shout, "That ref should be cut!"

Ah, rugby, the religion of South Africa.

[Patricia]

"Net gain," Andre? Good pun.

I love my computer. It's just that I love it a little too much.

[Claudine]

These days Andre it's shouts of Moer daai ref!

[Andre Jute]

Patricia Sierra wrote: ""Net gain," Andre? Good pun.

I love my computer. It's just that I love it a little too much."

"Net gain" is a respectable term in economics. Puns are for the easily amused. I qualify.

I'm sure computers cause heart disease, people cruising the net when they should be inhaling fresh air.

[Andre Jute]

Claudine wrote: "These days Andre it's shouts of Moer daai ref!"

Nice to see people keeping up standards of self-expression.

[Patricia]

Andre, I am easily amused -- but most easily by you.

[Patricia]

Claudine, I've been curious after following your posts elsewhere. How many books per week, on average, do you read? I have this image of you, always with a book in your hand, even when stirring a pot of stew or wiping a kid's nose.

[Claudine]

You are not far wrong Patricia! I am always reading, whether it is my Kindle or a magazine or the National Geographic or the logo on the the roll of toilet paper. I've had my nose in a book since I started reading.

I read probably an ebook every other day. I have anything from 1 to 3 or 4 books going at any one time though, print as well as ebook.

[Patricia]

Claudine wrote: "You are not far wrong Patricia! I am always reading, whether it is my Kindle or a magazine or the National Geographic or the logo on the the roll of toilet paper. I've had my nose in a book since..."

Do the people in your life ever complain that they feel neglected? My daughter reads almost as much as you do, and she gets a lot of grief from others as a result.

When I was a kid, up into my twenties, I read a lot. Then brain rot set in and now I think about reading far more than I actually do it.

[Claudine]

I read when my kids are at school. I take my kindle to the bathroom with me. I have a stash of books in the bathroom and toilet. I have a stash next to my bed and in the lounge, under the table that the phone stands on. My kids complain on weekends. My husband all the time.

[Patricia]

Claudine wrote: "I read when my kids are at school. I take my kindle to the bathroom with me. I have a stash of books in the bathroom and toilet. I have a stash next to my bed and in the lounge, under the table ..."

Here's the solution: Leave your husband, but let him have the kids on the weekend. Spares you from all the complaining.