What are your 'essential' books?

[The23SidedDie]

The Desert Island conundrum - you are going to spend a year on a desert island and have to keep five of whatever - in this case, genre books. Which would you keep?

Me, I think the game's a bit too limiting. I'm more interested in the end result - what do people think are essential, for one reason or another? Whether it's "This has far too much private meaning for me" or "I reread this every few years".

Mine is horribly PKD-centric. Here's a rough estimate:

1) A Scanner Darkly, Phillip K. Dick
2) The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
3) Use of Weapons, Iain Banks
4) Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Phillip K. Dick
5) Neuromancer, William Gibson
6) Night Watch, Sergei Lukanyenko
7) The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami
8) Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness, Fritz Leiber

...and probably more, now that I think of it. I keep looking at that list and going "what, no LeGuin? No Sturgeon?"


So, what are your essential books?

[ShannonA]

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. This is a series that I reread every several years, and I find new nuances every time.

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, I think. I've always liked the grittiness and the writing. I've got them on my shelf to reread this moment.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire & Ice. Maybe it won't bear such compulsive rereading once the series is done and all is explained. I reread the first couple of books and one of the big hiatuses, and I found them to still be deeply textured and interesting.

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are getting up there for me, though I haven't tried to reread them.

Isaac Asimov's Foundation is an old favorite, though I haven't read it in a long time, and I'm afraid I might not be able to get past the writing nowadays. SF was written very differently back in that day.

I'd be tempted by Phillip K. Dick. I read quite a bit of his works a decade or so ago, but now they all blend together than me other than the Valis trilogy. He hit the same ideas so often that I can't remember most of his books from the backcover text.

[Iozz-Sothoth]

Hmm.

My three volume set of Lovecraft's stories.

The Book of the New Sun, for the same reason as Shannon.

The House of Souls, which is an old, old collection of Arthur Machen's best, along with The Hill of Dreams.

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margerita.

The Iron Dragon's Daughter and Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick.

Dhagren and the Neveryon sequence by Sam Delaney.

REH's Conan and Solomon Kane stories.

The Hungry Moon and The House on Nazareth Hill by Ramsey Cambell.

And finally, the whole set of Phillip Marlowe stories by Raymond Chandler.

[ShannonA]

I almost listed Lovecraft too, in the Arkham House hardcovers, of course. One of my problems there is that though he's a pivotal and innovative writer, I'm not entirely convinced he's a good writer. A lot of his prose feels very purple in the modern day.

Colossal blasphemy or eldritch proportions? Perhaps.

[KingDubya]

Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card
I always liked it better than Ender's Game. I guess it's partially because Bean has a more calculating perspective on everything compared to Ender, which makes for a more interesting look at the events that happen in his life; yet, he still has some childish innocence and ignorance at times.

The Highwayman - R.A. Salvatore
Salvatore is one of my favorite authors, and this book is among my favorites. I guess it's because the main character overcomes so many obstacles throughout the whole book.

I would list more, but at the time I can't remember any others or find them to check what the title was... I'll probably post more later.

[heronymus]

My smart-ass answer to the desert island problem is PG Woodhouse's answer:

A Practical Guide To Boat-Building

A less smartass (and less clever) answer would be:

Lois McMaster Bujold's The Compleat Vorkosigan
A.C. Doyle's Total collection of Sherlock Holmes
The omnibus edition of Rudyard Kipling
Art and Lies, by Jeanette Winterson (don't let the bookstore fool you; it's a fantasy book)
Cory Doctorow's A Place So Foreign And Eight Others

[Xanador]

Keeping it short is not going to be easy.

The Chronicles of Amber(Corwin) by Roger Zelazny- It starts with amnesia in a psych hospital and goes on one of the wildest rides in SF.

The Book of Three/ Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander- The book and series that got me into SF/Fantasy.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien- The Master of course.

The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey- The first trilogy, Harper Hall was good too, but after that...

The Breaking of Northwall by Paul O. Williams- The first post-apocalyptic setting I ever read and a cool story.

Startide Rising/Uplift War by David Brin- My favorite SF bar none.

Godstalk/Dark of the Moon by P.C. Hodgell- Great fantasy from a largely unknown author.

King Chondos' Ride by Paul E. Zimmer- Towering Evil! Master Swordsmen! Clashing Armies! and my favorite last line in literature!!!

Plenty of "essentials" to go, but this should be good as a start ;)

[KingDubya]

Aha! I found more.

His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
One of the first trilogies I read. After reading through it, it was my favorite book for quite some time. It's too bad I lost them...

The Giver - Lois Lowry
I think this was the first book I read that was over 100 pages. It is a good book, but it's aimed more towards children and young adults than anyone else.

[Celephais]

The Stranger by Camus

Lovecraft books, of course.

Labyrinthes - by Jorge Louis Borges

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

[Jonathan M]

Blindsight - Peter Watts' stylish slice of hard SF looks at the nature of intelligence and consciousness.

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson producing what is arguably the best cyberpunk novel ever written.

Roadside Picnic - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky with a lovely work of soviet-era SF, influenced Mike Harrison's ideas for Light and Nova Swing, also produced the film Stalker and the game of the same name.

Shadows Linger - The second of Glen Cook's Black company novels. I like the first one too but the series rapidly turns into soup after that second novel which is fantastically dark (in that it deals with someone who keeps murdering people and selling their bodies to the cultists of an evil god for short term gain).

...and that's all I can think of for the moment.

[Dave Harfield]

In no particular order...

The Great Book of Amber (Both chronicles - huge tome!) As stated above, its about seventeen genres in one.

Neverwhere & American Gods - Neil Gaiman is a genius and his depictions of modern fantasy are second to none.

Hawkmoon - Michael Moorcock captures everything that's good about 30's pulp fantasy and forces it through a lens of melancholy nostalgia. This is my favourite of all his Eternal Champions.

Now I'm going to stop because whilst I have all of these in single book form I'm more than aware that strictly speaking Amber is 10 books and Hawkmoon is about 5 so I'll only tweak the rules of the game so far. :)

[One Horse town]

Books that i re-read a lot and are an annual event and so would join me on my desert island.

1. The Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly

This trilogy has stuck with me since i first read it. It was the first horror/fantasy/Lovecraftian/Apocolyptic type book that i read. Lots of cool characters that sadly don't get a huge amount of development as each book is only in the 250-300 page mark. What! No 600 page behemoths? Good stuff

2. The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce

My favourite piece of fiction bar none. A tale of lost innocence and growing up, as seen through the eyes of a young boy whose boyhood friend the 'tooth fairy' grows up with him and is not good for his health or that of his friends.

3. Mordants Need by Stephen Donaldson

Dunno why i like this so much, it's a bit clunky, with great big plot holes and deux ex machina every fifty pages or so, but the idea behind it is great and there are a number of payoffs that are worth waiting for. Grim reading in places, but ultimately pretty uplifting.

4. I'd probably also plump for It by Stephen King

My favourite King novel and one that pulls you into it so that you lose youself for weeks in its compelling narrative.

[The23SidedDie]

2. The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce

My favourite piece of fiction bar none. A tale of lost innocence and growing up, as seen through the eyes of a young boy whose boyhood friend the 'tooth fairy' grows up with him and is not good for his health or that of his friends.


Oh god, I forgot about this one. What a great novel. I really like a lot of Graham Joyce's novels, but this one's probably my favorite.

[The Disgruntled Poet]

Desert island? Seriously guys, take the Bible and a collected Shakespeare and Milton, maybe Walt Whitman and... um.. Homer. I go with the Iliad. Being stuck on a desert island, you might prefer the Odyssey since the hero actually GOES HOME at the end.

You'll have read the novels in like, 3 weeks! Shakespeare has brilliant poetry in almost every human situation and at the end, you'll have memorized Shakespeare! :D

OK, but to be to the point:

1. Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney (is this really a genre novel?) It would certainly reward re-reading and re-re-re-reading.

2. The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, by Gene Wolfe. His short stories have enough ambiguity to keep you busy.

3. The Fifth Head of Cerebus, by Gene Wolfe (so do his novels)

4. Silmarillion by Tolkien. I like the Lord of the Rings better as a novel, but on a desert island the tails and the mythology will serve you better for re-reading.

5. Collected Stories of Borges.

6. Collected stories of Thomas Ligotti. (He's so damn good, but I don't think they've even done a Collected, unfortunately. )

[Michael Hopcroft]

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. To me, this is horror.
Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by. H.P. Lovecraft
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlien (even if the philosophy is crap, it's a great book, which is more than I can say for anyting Ayn Rand ever wrote)
Cat's Cradle by the late, great Kurt Vonnegut (we shall miss him, although I doubt he misses us)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

There was a book Chaosium printed called The Hastur Cycle which wasmy introduction to, among others, Robert W. Chambers. "The Repairer of Reputations" may be one of the most chilling things I've ever read.

[The23SidedDie]

Desert island? Seriously guys, take the Bible and a collected Shakespeare and Milton, maybe Walt Whitman and... um.. Homer. I go with the Iliad. Being stuck on a desert island, you might prefer the Odyssey since the hero actually GOES HOME at the end.

You'll have read the novels in like, 3 weeks! Shakespeare has brilliant poetry in almost every human situation and at the end, you'll have memorized Shakespeare! :D


Sheesh, next this thread'll have people berating us for taking books instead of flares and survival tools. :/

[The Disgruntled Poet]

Sheesh, next this thread'll have people berating us for taking books instead of flares and survival tools. :/

Well I did get a little snarky, but at least I did answer the question, even in the spirit in which it was asked. :D

[Michael Hopcroft]

Sheesh, next this thread'll have people berating us for taking books instead of flares and survival tools. :/

Well, very few people plan to be marooned on desert islands.

And for those that don't but end up anyway, a bit of ingenuity involving to cocanut can work wonders. :)

But really, is there such a thing as a true desert island? Part of the genus -- and curse -- of mankind is that anywhere he can conceivably live, he will and, in all likelihood, already does.

[Iozz-Sothoth]

6. Collected stories of Thomas Ligotti. (He's so damn good, but I don't think they've even done a Collected, unfortunately. )

There's The Nightmare Factory, but it's long out of print, alas.:(