Everything Else

...suppose you are banned but are allowed to take just *five* books with you. Which ones would you choose? My pick:

- Penrose, The road to reality
- Smullyan, Diagonalization and self-reference
- Wentworth Thompson, On growth and form
- Goodheart & Cox, The magic garden explained
- Dante, Divine comedy

Of course, I would not want miss my gyrotwister either...

-- Interview With The Vampire
-- Faust
-- Good Omens
-- Dead Until Dark
-- The Bible.

I'd be entertained, enlightened, and have plenty of imagination with reading those to keep me company for a while

- Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Das Boot (yes, the one that became a movie, and yes, the book is still better )
- Ernest Claes, Bei Uns In Deutschland & Pastoor Campens Zaliger (local Belgian writer, early 1900)
- Donna Tartt, The Secret History
- Walter Moers, The 13 1/2 Lives of Capt'n Bluebear
- Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

But gah, only five so many good books...

BoatBuilding for Beginners - ISBN-13: 978-1891369292
Celestial Navigation for Yachtsman - ISBN-13: 978-0070059283
Coconut Lovers Cookbook - ISBN-13: 978-0941599597
Atlas of Remote Islands - ISBN-13: 978-0143118206
Man vs. Wild: Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth - ISBN-13: 978-1401322939

love this book!! even watched the movie

mine would be:
- Holy Bible
- then all books about surviving same as porter

- The God Particle, Leon Letterman
- The Inflationary Universe, Alan Guth
- The Hunting of the Quark, Michael Riordan
- The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan
- All The Words, The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus

I agree - "The Name of the Rose" is a terrific book, and the movie was fine as well [Connery and Qualtinger were just outstanding].

Regarding your book list - well, you'd chosen *six* books. Out of courtesy :-):-) I let that pass. After all, the Bible is without question the greatest crime & sex story ever dreamed up [see, e.g., Akerley, "The X-Rated Bible"], and, therefore, will make entertaining reading any time...

Holy Bible is the last book I would take anywhere with me.

When finally get away from useless things like religion, then why take it with you then?

TOTALLY agree with you!

speaking about the Bible, reminds me of two movies (just for fun tho..)

1. Book of Eli: Just because of one book, but they didn't know that that last Bible was in braille
2. Love Guru: BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

just five is always a hard choice, it's summer and i'm working crazy hours. mix a drink for us mister oskar :)

-Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time)
-Kafka, Amerika / Der Verschollene (Amerika or The man who disappeared)
-Mayakovsky, A Cloud in Trousers (together with Lissitzky's art for mayakovsky's work)
-Camus, Le premier homme (The first man)
-Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The man without qualities)



yep, these two would make my list too

I'm sorry, I thought the question was which five books I was taking with me

Oh wait, that was the question . . . Aww, did someone's feelings get hurt that the big bad Bible was mentioned?

Don't worry, on your island, you can take whatever books you want, as far away as you want.

Yes, it is a free world and nobody is claiming otherwise. No need to get upset...

Holy Bible itself is not necessarily bad as some people may find some comfort in there. Only when people read and take it too seriously there is danger it can wrongly be used for bad things. Every book that is not to be taken literally is easy to interpret so that it advances someones own purposes.

I am not religious, so Holy Bible is just another book to me and I find a god that helps only those that help themself worthless. Maybe that says it all.

Depressed, finally he addressed our late-night visitor. "Sir Fu, obviously you indulge only in the lightest of literature. Methinks, even a small dose of pynchonomancy might cure you!", Holmes muttered, and reached out for his needle...

Actually, if you're into Proust - you might enjoy Pickover's delightfully weird "Sex, Drugs, Einstein, & Elves" [2005]

As for drinks - how about a double Hendrick's + Fevertree, cooled not by (ice) cubes but by (frozen) supereggs?

BTW - come to think of it, I take the liberty to replace "The magic garden explained" by Bucky's "Synergetics, Vol. 1"...