Okay, the first contest for a chance to win a copy of the 10th Anniversary Limited Edition Pride & Prejudice Collector’s Set, which contains both the DVDs and the illustrated companion book for the A&E/BBC miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
Oh, and did I mention the winner will be chosen randomly, by my son, from all the pertinent entries? Okay, well, considered it mentioned. No merit badges here, friends.
Okay. Contest question: If you could take five books, and five books only, to an island for a year, which five would you choose? Have you read them all already? Would you choose the classics, or stuff to keep you entertained (not that the two are mutually exclusive, mind you).
Mine would be, today at least:
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice — read it a zillion times, could read it a zillion more.
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow — never read it, always wanted to, the
Existensialist Spouse loves it, and it’s huge, so it’d keep me occupied.
Andrew Lang, The Colored Fairy Tale Books (there are 12 of them, and it’s my contest, so it’s not cheating. You can do the same with Shakespeare’s Complete Works or anything that comes all together. So there.) — read them all even more times than P&P, they formed the basis of my morality. Honestly. And the illustrations by H.J. Ford just floor me.
A History of Philosophy — I have Vol. VI (From the French Enlightenment to Kant) and Vol. VII (From The Post-Kantian Idealists to Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietszche) — never read either one of them, have always been dying to, just so I know more about philosophy and ideas and all that hoo-ha.
Mary Balogh, The Notorious Rake — I love this book. I love her writing, but this is probably my favorite of hers. Besides all the others, except No Man’s Mistress, which I was meh on, and Silent Melody, which I actively disliked. But the rest? Heaven. This one, though, is top on my heap.
So–what would you choose? Feel free to dis my choices, or tell me I should really read Infinite Jest or The Corrections or something.
Megan
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Five? Hee-boy.
Silver Birch by Dorothy Lyons, favorite horse story of my youth.
Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale, just because.
The most complete dictionary I could find, probably OED or maybe American Heritage, because I can entertain myself for months reading the dictionary. It’s as bad as wasting time on Wikipedia.
The Index by Carl Raswan (Horse breeding book which I keep meaning to read–would need a large supply of paper and pencils for diagramming to make sense of some of it.)
And either a Ray Bradbury collection (October Moon?) or a Wodehouse collection.
Okay, I decided to take this from the last AAR poll about favorite heroes. Since I have to seriously want to re-read the book over and over I could only pick 6 books.
Lord of Danger Anne Stuart – historical romance with a hero who falls for his plain bride. Beautiful and one of my all time favorites
Moonrise Anne Stuart – dark tortured hero who tries to destroy the heroine and can’t
Time Enough for Love Suzanne Brockmann – probably one of the best TT I’ve ever read. Wasn’t a SEAL book but the hero from the future was tortured and dark and the hero in the present was light and fun and I fell in love with them both when I thought it would be impossible
Lover Awakened J.R. Ward – I thought there were some truly groud breaking things (course I don’t read erotica or romantica) in this book and it’s the first time EVER that I wanted to re-read a book immediately. I didn’t because I was afraid I would never again come up for air.
Dream Man Linda Howard – honestly, I haven’t read this book for a while and I wonder how it would hold up now. Still, the book made an impression.
I guess I should have put all the Gabaldon books, the Lymond Chronicles and I guess those Harry Potter books but I would be in dire straights if I didn’t like them! I could use the toilet paper though.
Cindy
ooh, I want to win! hmmm…books…I’d bring
Pride and Prejudice
U.S. Army Survival Guide
Whitney My Love by Judith McNaught (this was the book that got me hooked on romance. I’d like to read it again)
My family scrapbook so I could have them all with me
Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s
I would probably bring the whole I-Death collecction. Yes, they do count as one very large book.
Indiscreet by Mary Balogh. I don’t know why this one sticks with me.
Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
The Ladies of Madrigyn by Barbara Hambly, and
Duel Crown by Sherwood Smith
Just five? Let’s see …
Pride & Prejudice,
By Arrangement, Madeline Hunter
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley),
The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough,
Harry Potter (Half-blood Prince if I can’t bring the whole series)
Since I generally pack more books than clothes, choosing only five is going to be a really tough choice.
Without a doubt, the first one will have to be “Pride and Prejudice”. It generally goes with me wherever I go.
Second will be “The Pickwick Papers”, another classic fave of mine.
Stranded on an island? “Robinson Crusoe” is a must.
Now let’s see. I’ll have to choose some contemporaries.
Any book in the Stephanie Plum series – maybe the one in which Grandma Mazur sets the funeral home on fire or the story in which Sally arrives with guns blazing.
Now that’s four. Fifth book will be either a Dark-Hunter book by author Sherrilyn Kenyon or a book from Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series. They’re both equally appealing to me.
Whew! Finally got them all down.
Just 5?! eeek!
Ok, P&P (naturally!)(and btw, this never changes no matter how many times I answer this question!), my Bible, The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons or it’s sequal, The Makenzies by Linda Howard, and The Count of Monte Chisto (because I’ve always wanted to read it!
I’ve read them all except the Count and the sequal to The Bronze Horseman.
The books I would take are:
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Jewels of The Sun – Nora Roberts
The Complete Works of Shakespeare – Shakespeare
Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes
A blank notebook
Thanks for the chance to win.