Desert Island List
 

Einstein said that any given person stranded on an island somewhere would long for their 10 favorite books. reading that made me want those 10 books, from everyone! so.............

imagine that you're stuck on a desert island. you find a mailing box washed up on shore (ala Castaway) and inside of it is an iPad. (sadly, no internet) downloaded to the device, however, are your three favorite movies - or books - or CDs - or games.

so spill. pick a category (movies, books, CDs, games) or add one of your own. post the best of your best, as many as you like, as often as you like. let's see what we can inspire one another to watch - read - listen to - or play!


3 desert island books: The Freeway (by Dori DeCamillis), The House of Mirth (by Edith Wharton) and Lilith's Brood (by Octavia Butler)

next!

Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories -- Sarah Orne Jewett
Joy in the Morning -- P.G. Wodehouse
The Best of Wodehouse -- P.G. Wodehouse
Mansfield Park -- Jane Austen
The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne
Masnavi -- Rumi
Lord of the Rings -- Tolkien
Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry -- editor Frederick Nims
(I taught this book many times and came to love the poems Nims selected.)
The Complete Sherlock Holmes -- Conan Doyle
A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life -- Santideva (Maybe I would become enlightened on a desert island -- no distractions. It's possible. Might as well try.)

More poetry than I would have thought. And no Faulkner. Well, I need to be comforted and entertained on a desert island.

Not counting these among my ten because, although I would want them with me, I probably would not read them for pleasure:

The Boy Scout Manual
A Guide to Edible Plants

ooohhhhh FUN! Making me meander through my mind :)

Ok...books...I would SO want to cheat and just bring a kindle...but if I have to play nice.... books would be:

1. Little Women...its my go to feel good book....I have to always have a copy ...not like Catcher in the Rye sort of need but...anyhow...

2. I like to have a book of poems by both Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson... I'm very devoted to my New England roots :)

3. I suppose practically I would like to have a book on surviving in the wild....if that's cheating too much then my Backpacker magazine.....


Movies:

1. Last of the Mohicans

2. Fried Green Tomatoes

3. Dirty Dancing

CDs

1. Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magick

2. anything by Lady Antebellum

3. Led Zeppelin's complete collection

I will probably feel the need to add to this as I think of more :)

Books for me. . .
"The Lord of the Rings" Tolkien (Yes they do make it in 1 big book)
"Jitterbug Perfume" Tom Robbins
"Jane Eyre" Charlotte Bronte

I misread the OP. thought we were doing ten. Sorry.

Wondering how long the battery is going to last in that iPad . . .

I'd have James Taylor, Staind, and one CD of kick ass gospel.

Movies i'd have Everything is Illuminated, Fargo, and Despicable Me

only need 1 game BF3

My movies are well kind of girly ones lol dont judge

Fried green tomatoes
Gone with the wind
The best little whore house in texas

If only given three total I am afraid I would select music that has sound tones like Tibetan Chakra Meditations and other meditative music. Maybe a nice jazz sound track. At least by stimulating my mind I can activate my imagination and heal.

eh. who cares? it's YOUR island baby! (complete with electricity, coffee and toilet paper of course!) Gilligan got coconut cream pie fer pete sake! you can have 10 anythings!

two words. currant bush

:cracked:

gentle judging ahead
 

i'm gonna challenge you on the use of this word my friend.

i'm tres girly and i hate all 3 of these movies so let's not define them using that word, ok? my idea of exceptional girl movies is a trifecta of Memento followed by The Prestige and all tied up with a bow by American History X. three exceptionally "girly" movies because they were brilliant and i'm a self identified girl and i LOVED THEM.

so now i'm gonna exert my secret OP rules and make you choose 3 more! :devil:

Your right my apologies I should not have used that word
three more lets see

The lucky one
Children of men
A pocketful of miracles
Ohhh one more
Hello Dolly

oooooooh! Children of Men! good one!

ANYthings??? That's better than I do NOT on a desert island. ;)

yep. "anythings" at all

Nomad (who is standing by her propensity for made up wordities because she is the super hero of vocabularyishness.)

:supermanbooth:

Music: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

Book: The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)

Movie: Sleepless in Seattle (Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan)

CD's
 

Dead Can Dance - Spiritchaser
Moby - Play
Ozomatli - Live at the Fillmore

If I was stranded I would want the following:

The Bible
The Shack
The Bachuman books( I think I misspelled it. Stephen Kings books he wrote under another name)

I'm gonna go with my ten. I got permission, and I'm gonna do it.

Music

1. Trace -- Son Volt
2. Sojourner -- Magnolia Electric Co
3. Nobody's Darlings -- Lucero
4. Catalog Box Set -- Bob Dylan
5. Ghosts of the Great Highway -- Sun Kil Moon
6. Boxer -- The National
7. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road -- Lucinda Williams
8. Devotion and Doubt -- Richard Buckner
9. A Man Under the Influence -- Alejandro Escovedo
10. Rumor and Sigh -- Richard Thompson

Fuck ten. I will stick some CD's down my bra. Or perhaps between my belly folds. Both.

1. Buddy and Julie Miller -- Buddy and Julie Miller
2. The Shepherd's Dog -- Iron & Wine
3. Old Five and Dimers Like Me -- Billy Joe Shaver
4. Dublin Blues -- Guy Clark
5. Live in Aught Three -- James McMurtry
6. Z -- My Morning Jacket
7. A Bigger Piece of Sky -- Robert Earl Keen Jr.
8. The Houston Kid -- Rodney Crowell
9. Live from Austin, TX -- Steve Earle
10. Revival -- Gillian Welch

Alright, I suppose they are falling out of my panties.

Movies

I can't stick by this list. A first draft, it would be.

1. Giant
2. The Birdcage
3. Charlie Wilson's War
4. Alias -- tv -- all seasons
5. The Wire -- tv -- all seasons
6. On the Town
7. Charade
8. Six Weeks Notice
9. Terminator 2 -- for Vasquez
10. My Man Godfrey

Assuming electricity, given movie and music options;

I would bring my Kindle loaded with it's max of 900 or so books.

:cheesy:

Not sure what I'd do the second month.

:thinking:

Uh oh, just re-read the OP. Okay, one more time following the guide:

Books;
Complete works of Walt Whitman
Tao De Ching
Field guide for desert islands

Movies:
North by Northwest
BBC series - Life (the Attenborough version)
The Last Emperor

Music:
Dave Brubeck - Jazz Impressions of New York
General meditative;
Japanese flutes
Celtic guitar

I'm thinking the "Sounds of Ocean Waves" will be pretty much handled.

:theisland:

I guess we only get one, (I never read instructions well), make it the books. :)

let's redefine
 

ok ok let's make it easy. choose 3 of everything - books, music, film or games.

also, an new development happens on your island. you're getting company! but you have to choose ONE PERSON from among the characters on Gilligan's Island. who will it be:

1st Mate Willy Gilligan
Skipper Jonas Grumby
Thurston Howell III
Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell
Professor Roy Hinkley
Ginger Grant
Mary Anne Summers

choose your fate!

Lovey. I think she's kinky.

This may be an attempt to derail...
 

Nomad said:
So here is my category - personal care product.
Lip balm, lip balm, lip balm, sunscreen, lip balm, lip balm, moisturizer, lip balm, a bar of soap, and a pack of wet ones or baby wipes.

Or not an attempt to derail.

I like the Lord of the Ring trilogy, the North and South trilogy, and all of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. (I gotta get Wind through the keyhole.)
Ok, that's more than 10. Ditch the north & south.
I could go without music as long as I had someone to talk to.
And I don't watch much tv, so I would rather have more books. So I add Harry Potter and Clive Barker's books of blood. Also my Cemetery Dance halloween short story book, as it's getting near that time...

Music CD's:

Marvin Gaye-Sexual Healing
Led Zepplin-Physical Graffiti
Pink Floyd-most anything, but especially Wish You Were Here

Books:

Complete Works of Langston Hughes
Ditto-e.e.cummings
Dostoyevsky-Crime and Punishment

Movies:

Vertigo
The Crying Game
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

And Ginger ;)

Well, my first reaction would be to pick Ginger.. 'natch. ;)

However, I would probably have a lot of fun and invent useful things hanging out with the professor.

:theisland:

Not sure about who I would pick from Gilligan's Island - have to go and revisit that. But books:

Brewer's Phase and Fable
Another Mother Tongue, Judy Grahn
An Angel at my table - complete autobiography, Janet Frame

will come back with movie and music choices :D

1. Kindle with solar charger, complete with loads of survivor information including books, articles on edible plants, building emergency and long standing shelters, desalination... which would all be important in an island situation. Not to mention all of the other books that I have loaded on there.

2. Either the Professor for his inventive abilities, or Gilligan for his integrity and entertainment value. (As for choosing between Ginger and Mary Anne, my choice would be Maryann. Ginger was much too shallow acting for my tastes.) Come to think of it, I would likely choose Mary Anne over all of the others, I would not want to face the possibility of spending the rest of my days without female companionship.

3. My knife

No movies or games for me, but my dog has to be there.

Yup, I broke the rules, which is probably why I was sent to the island in the first place. :theisland:

that's right Number 6!

oh heck if I got to choose people to keep me company id pick the Beverly Hillbillies cause Uncle Jedd knows how to hunt and Grannie can cook,,Ellie May is eye candy and Jethro is just silly

see, now i want to bring the people from Mission Impossible!

Mary Anne

Presence Process /Artist's Way/Life is a verb

Bach/Gipsy Kings/ PemaChodrun

African Queen / Big Sleep / Off the Map

Music: Somethin' Else
Book: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/James-Baldwin-Collected-Library-America/dp/1883011523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410045554&sr=8-1&keywords=james+baldwin+collected+essays"]James Baldwin: Collected Essays[/ame]

Movie: Daughters of the Dust

Great choice of thread bump :-)
 

Hmmmm, interesting to think about and I loved reading everyone else's answers!

If we're going for desert island-specific choices and not favourites, then:


General Music (who buys actual CDs anymore?):
Dead Can Dance - for beautiful, haunting, and sometimes oddly calming music
Tchaikovsky - for an emotive, decadent Russian Romantic with wide range
Simon and Garfunkel - musical valium :)

Movies:
Equilibrium - for this scene and this scene (<--- spoilers - if you haven't seen it yet, do!). Think 1984 meets The Matrix.
The Hours - for the literary aspect and also it feels very much like a "woman's story" (in all the best ways). I love how delicately and kindly it treats its characters. Plus, that soundtrack is beautiful.
Away We Go - for a fun, fairly light pick-me-up


Books:
Wittgenstein's Mistress - David Markson
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
plus...
The Book of Longing - Leonard Cohen
OR
Blood, Marriage, Wine, and Glitter - S. Bear Bergman
OR
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
- can't decide between the last three :deepthoughts:

Character:
I've never actually seen Gilligan's Island, so... hmmm, based on the character descriptions via Wikipedia, I'm going to go with The Professor. He has a background in botany and was a science teacher, so he'd be a useful companion (plus, I could scratch off a botany/survivalist book from my list). I bet he's also a really interesting 2-am conversationalist. :-)