Desert Island Books

The lovely, talented, and continually charming Jeanne asked, in the Bill James post below, what other books I would want to take with me to a desert island.

Many years ago, Tower Records (remember them?) used to publish a free magazine with artist interviews and suchlike promotional material. One of the pieces they used to publish was a reprint of an article called "Desert Island Discs" from a UK newspaper, in which artists would list the seven albums they would want to take with them (obviously, one assumes the presence of a solar powered player of said albums) to a desert island.

So, in that tradition and with Jeanne's inspiration, my Desert Island Books-the seven books I would like to take with me to a desert island. (I will exclude, for the sake of argument, books on wilderness survival and such. The natural first choice would be "how to survive being stranded on a desert island", but that's no fun.)

The books for a list like this not only have to be good, but they have to stand up to repeated rereading.


1. "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract"-A long, detailed history of baseball, along with rankings of the top 100 players at the different positions and commentary about each player. I have read this cover to cover probably ten times, and love it each and every time.

2. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Robert Pirsig-First read it in high school, and understand it a little bit more every time I read it. A book about motorcycles that really isn't about motorcycles at all.

3. The Bible-I've always wanted to read it, cover to cover. I've read lots of books about it, but I've never read it itself all the way through.

4. "Get In The Van", Henry Rollins-A nonfiction account of Rollins' time with the punk band Black Flag. It doesn't sound immediately interesting, but Rollins is a fascinating man, and goes into various digressions often enough to make it a fascinating read.

5. "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide", Douglas Adams- A bit of a cheat, because it is a 5 volume omnibus of the Hitchhiker's novels, but one that has stood up to repeated rereadings over the years. Of the hundreds of books I have bought, maybe the best value. Arthur Dent is an ordinary man in England who narrowly escapes the demolition of the Earth-and, believe it or not, hilarity ensues.

6. "Rabbit Angstrom", John Updike-Same as above-a cheat, because it is all the Rabbit novels in one cover. A fascinating series, following one man through the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties in America.

7. "The Civil War", Shelby Foote-Actually only read this once, but it's a tremendous read-a deeply detailed history of the American Civil War.

Feel free to leave your own list in the comments. The rules are simple-7 volumes of any size (the Civil War is a stretch-it's a boxed set of 3 volumes, but I consider it one item.) you have to take with you to live forever on a desert island. Assume your bodily needs (food, shelter, clothing) are taken care of-these are just to keep you entertained.