* You have been generously given the complete works of Shakespeare, any religious materials you choose to bring and all the survival you need, thank you Mr. Smith!
Nothing helps you escape the mundane lifestyle you are forced to live on a desert isle more than a book set in the desert. Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
Nothing you will ever have to face alone will ever compare to the trials of Bilbo Baggins. As he battles goblins, giant spiders, elves, men, and dragons (all of whom are many times more violent and larger than Bilbo himself). Read this book to help remind yourself that whatever hardships you may be facing at the moment, you really just need to suck it up.
Have you ever wondered just what fairies and other magical beings looked like, where they live, what animals they are friends with, or what they do for fun? This is the book for you! Full of wonderful watercolor paintings of fairies and the world they live in. Every image is guaranteed to help you forget that you are stranded all alone. Dive deep into this world of wonder depicted on each page and just forget that your only companion is volleyball with no personality and an awful haircut.
So, imagine you had all these wonderful books to read, but there are a lot of really difficult words to learn. What would you do? Thank goodness you grabbed the dictionary! Now you can spend your free time reading the “x” section (trust me, the plot twists are A-mazing!). Complete with word etymology (the history of the word) and all known definitions, this is guaranteed to be a great choice for any castaway.
The perfect way to collect all those personal thoughts that you are otherwise unable or unwilling to share. Hopefully this journal will not be filled with entries similar to Life of Pi where you are forced to fight a tiger named Richard Parker for your side of the island. But if it is, you are guaranteed a great read when you finish writing it.
This book is all about living out in the wilderness, alone and secluded. It is a collection of personal journal entries from Richard Proenneke, a true account of a man who left society to go live off the land in Alaska, away from civilization. This is a great book to see how to enjoy the solitary life. His journal entries really help show how to find solitude enjoyable. That being alone with ones thoughts isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully you can appreciate the message Richard is portraying about the beauty of being alone with nature. Otherwise, you are sure going to have a lousy time stranded on that island.
Imagine your name being pulled from a hat, but instead of winning a 50/50 raffle, you are instead elected to fight to the death against 23 other people for your country’s entertainment. Sound fun? No? Then you and the main character have something in common and maybe you would enjoy this book. The perfect book for reading on the beach (like all of these others on this list) you follow Katniss Everdeen as she becomes an unwilling symbol of rebellion against a military state, falls in love (kinda), and fights to survive.
There were homemade valentines and Easter eggs, Fourth of July picnics and family birthdays. Thanksgiving brought visits from relatives -- so many, the children had to sleep in the barn! And finally there was Christmas, the best of all "times to keep," with handmade presents, an Advent calendar, and a "beautiful tree in a shine of candles." Month by month, Tasha Tudor's delicate illustrations bring to life the holidays of an earlier time. A warm-hearted celebration of family and tradition, this treasury of "times to keep" will be cherished and enjoyed all year long.
This book will make you feel like you are surrounded by family and friends while you are snuggled under your palm-leaf lean-to sipping on coconut milk.
If you are looking for that perfect book that helps battle the depressing weight of loneliness and despair, this book is the perfect companion for that. This is the story of three people who have at one point or another, given in to the despair of depression. Because of this, they have wound up together in a psychiatric hospital and together are learning how to battle their inner demons and better their lives. Suddenly, surviving by yourself on a dessert island doesn’t seem so bad any more.
This book is a perfect book to bring to a dessert isle. Set in Germany in the years 1939-1943, The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, narrated by Death who has in his possession the book she wrote about these years. So, in a way, they are both book thieves. Liesel steals randomly at first and later more methodically, but she's never greedy. Death pockets Liesel's notebook after she leaves it, forgotten in her grief, amongst the destruction that was once her street, her home, and carries it with him. Perhaps this copy was stolen as well, from the airport bookstore just before you took off, and crashed and became stranded on this island. Now doesn’t that make you think?
The spellbinding epic set in twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of the lives entwined in the building of the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known—and a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother. Now that little sandcastle you were planning on building to pass the time just doesn’t seem as epic as you once thought, does it?
Should you find yourself thinking that your life is so unfair ever since you became deserted on this island, read through this story. The main character is forced into poverty and given a horrible sentence of long years of slave labor. Meanwhile, the entire country of France has their own problems trying to fight for their independence. Yet still, Jean Valjean’s problems are the primary focus of this story and make you wonder who has it worse? Certainly not you, on your cozy little island paradise.
In the past, Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and even unreadable. Everything you want to bring with you to a deserted island. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.
This book is part of a larger series with hundreds of characters. Each book on its own is a great choice to bring with you to a deserted island. They are fully immersive and easy to get into. But of all 14 books in the series, this one has some of the best story-telling for the main characters. Each one finally begins to understand what their destiny and fate truly is. This book has everything you would need to enjoy rereading. The conclusion feels like a conclusion, not like an open-ended story. Great book for sitting under a palm tree in the shade.
Reading this book will soon have you waving sticks around shouting Accio Coconut! Or some other various spell. A great book full of magic and mystery and adventure, this first book in the series will soon have you believing you are in fact a wizard, and all you need to do is find the right spell to release you from this solitary confinement. Either that, or the sunstroke has finally gotten to you.
Every time you read a poem, the poem changes meaning based on where you are in your life. If you happen to be stranded on a deserted island, that re-readability makes poetry the quintessential, must-have kind of book to bring with you on a deserted island. Re-read a poem just a year later, and you will read a poem with all new meanings and images and metaphors.
Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The ultimate book for teaching you why it isn’t a bad thing to get away from it all, the story follows an assistant to a demanding and manipulative fashion designer. Her personal life, family life, and mental health all are put through their paces as she tries to keep up with the stressful and fast-paced lifestyle. If only there was some place she could escape to, be alone with her thoughts, and just relax. Luckily, you have no such problem and are utterly alone! Yay!
For when your eyes become too strained from reading the fine print of all these books, you can turn to this collection of art. Not only are you able to view amazing pieces of art without having to go to a museum, but you are able to learn about whichever artist catches your eye. A great way to pass the time and keep your mind busy, while enjoying beautiful art.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. This book will help remind you of the impact you make on others lives. Even if you don’t realize you have. A great book to read when stranded, and alone. It will remind you that you have made an impression with someone somewhere, and that should help you not feel so alone anymore.
This book is great for making you feel better about being stranded alone on a deserted island, away from everyone. Society is divided into five factions, but if you are unable to fit into one faction is killed. People undergo a personality test to determine where they should be placed. But if you fail the tests for any reason, say your personality matches three factions, you are labeled as a Divergent and put to death. This book is about a girl who fails the personality test for just that reason. But she soon learns that there is a lot more to her that makes the people who run society afraid of what she can do.