Deserted Island List Mania: A Rundown of the 5 Books I'd Never Ever Give Up

   I was recently discussing with a friend the topic of personal libraries. We agreed that there are certain books that we simply could never get rid of, no matter how much shelf space it'd free up. We both felt that these collections were signifiers of our personalities. If we didn't have these specific individual libraries, then a causal onlooker would not be able to discern who we had been, who we are now, and who we want to be in the future.
   A few weeks ago I did some spring cleaning, including a thinning of my book library. There were about 20 that I easily singled out for donation, while about 10 that were somewhat difficult to give up. After the assessment, approximately 50 books - mostly novels, poetry collections, social science texts, and a handful of biographies - remained and will do so into the foreseeable future.
  Running with this train of thought, I have created a deserted island list. These are the 5 books that I could never ever be without. They are those texts that I could read over and over again and never be bored. They surprise me every time with something emotionally striking and/or new. I wouldn't be satisfied to have these volumes on Kindle, Ipad, or any other digital reader. I need to own the actual book and be able to hold it in my hands, turning real pages and cracking real spines. These books say something profound, at least to me, about who I am.

In no particular order:

1.  The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

   "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." If you can come up with a more gripping first sentence, tell me, because I can't find one. I am quite biased, true, since I know the rest of the tale. I don't care; it's a stellar beginning to a book I could just sit with all day and flip through, marveling in the dazzling strands of story/web that Atwood spins so skillfully. 







2. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

   The allegorical town of Macondo is rendered unforgettable as told through the history of the Buendía family, both imaginings of Marquez's passionate prose. This novel swings between passages of lulling calm and those of thundering violence, gorgeous and sprawling landscapes and claustrophobic moments of terror. Beautiful and epic in scope, a veritable myth of a book.







3. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

   The decision between this Vonnegut masterpiece and that of Cat's Cradle was one I wrestled with, and perhaps still will do so into the future. But something in my mind/heart(?) tells me that Slaughterhouse-Five would be the one of the two I would grab from my shelf if a fire were cutting through my home and I had only seconds to escape. Billy Pilgrim is a name I will never forget, and his journey as he becomes unstuck in time is that of a hilarious romp combined with an exploding, shrapnel-filled morality tale.





4. The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forche

   "Gathering this world together without seam, The Country Between Us reflects back to us that which is most difficult to view - the mire and complexity of our society - and alters it into that which cannot be turned away from. The sensual language on display in these poems never oversteps the dramatic narratives unfolding from real experiences and remembrances. The resulting realization that everything within happened - the causal and cruel violent acts, the striking injustices, the moments of pure and transcendent glory - does not soon abate." - Excerpt from my 04/21/14 review of the collection.




5. In The Skin Of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje

   "...the quiet yet clear sensation of a true epic masterpiece unfolding among the scenes and chapters of In The Skin Of A Lion is sincerely swoon-worthy. I have read and re-read nearly all of Michael Ondaatje's works, but this is the one that rises highest among them for me. Certain turns of phrase and specific revelations have the ability to make my hair stand on end in pleasure." - Excerpt from my 04/27/14 review of the novel.






Cheater Bonus Book - Memoir: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

   The book might confuse some looking for a linear narrative of a life story. But this particular memoir edges between fiction and fact, elemental and original. Hong Kingston uses her fierce clarity of words to blend her own tale with that of becoming the "female avenger" of her dreams. At times dizzying in scope but always rooted in the profoundly personal.







Super Cheater Bonus Book - Non Fiction: If I could take a huge, heavy volume, it'd have to be the illustrated and annotated edition of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams compiled by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. That's a BIG book!

   Even if you vehemently disagree with things that Freud proclaimed true, you have to admit he started the conversation, as well as the fact that he was a talented and evocative writer. And this annotated edition of his greatest work brings the other voices of the discussions and arguments that it sparked into the fold. The book that makes my head spin with free-wheeling imaginings and swirling notions of thought.