After 233 nominations of 193 different books by 145 authors, I put the 30 most nominated books to a vote. After 874 votes here are the top ten books to take to a desert island (along with “The Idiot’s Guide to Desert Island Living”, of course):
#10: Dante: “The Divine Comedy” (1321)
Epic poem about travels through hell, purgatory and heaven. Meet famous dead people and see where they wound up. Most of the interesting people wound up in hell.
Post on February 1st 2011
#9: George Orwell: 1984 (1949)
Orwell’s dark view of the future: “Big Brother is watching you” and all that.
Post on March 1st 2011
#8: George Orwell: Animal Farm (1945)
Animals take over a farm. A story about the nature of power – and of Stalinist Russia.
Post on April 1st 2011
#7: Edgar Allan Poe: Ten Great Mysteries (1830s-1840s)
No longer in print, but I am pretty sure the ten mysteries themselves can be found elsewhere. Here they are:
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue
- The Purloined Letter
- The Tell-Tale Heart
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
- A Descent into the Maelstrom
- The Black Cat
- Thou Art the Man
- Metzengenstein
Post on May 1st 2011
#6: Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969)
A coming of age story about Angelou’s early years in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s.
Post on June 1st 2011
#5: Tolkien: Lord Of The Rings (1955)
“The Hobbit” only way longer and way better. Middle Earth in all its glory. Frodo has the ring that could rule the world – and so must destroy it.
Post on July 1st 2011
#4: Cheikh Anta Diop: The African Origin Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality (1974)
Were the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt black?
Post on August 1st 2011
#3: Homer: Odyssey (c. -850)
Odysseus’s ten long years in trying to get home after the Trojan War. I will reread it in the Fagles translation.
Post on September 1st 2011
#2: The Bible (367)
The holy book of the Christians. The Holman translation is the best one overall in current English.
Post on November 1st 2011
#1: Malcolm X, Alex Haley: The Autobiography Of Malcolm X (1965)
Malcolm X’s life story. A must-read for all Americans no matter what their race.
Post on January 1st 2012
Honourable mentions (#11-#20):
11: Toni Morrison: Song Of Solomon
12: Muhammad: Koran
13: Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
14: Homer: Iliad
15: Toni Morrison: Jazz
16: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: That Thing Around Your Neck
17: J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
18: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Purple Hibiscus
19: Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
20: Yann Martel: Life Of Pi
I will do a post on each of the top ten books on the first of each month. See above for the dates. Sadly, I have already read all but two of them – Poe (#7) and Diop (#4). But they are all well worth rereading and so I will – except for the Bible and “Lord of the Rings”, since they are so long. For them I will reread the last 300 or so pages: the New Testament and “The Return of the King”.
– Abagond, 2011.
See also:
Can’t wait for the posts on these books! I am happy to see some of my favs made it to the Top 10!
I’ve read Dante, Orwell, Tolkien and Homer, and I’ve partially read The Bible, Diop and Poe.
Those I haven’t read before: The Autobiography Of Malcolm X and Maya Angelou (in fact, I’ve never heard about this novel before).
Also, I can’t help noticing that LotR is the most popular novel on the list. Which I like. 😀
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Seriously?? All of your readers would take epic poems and classic literature? Are you all just trying to look really erudite, or are you really opposed to reading James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Omar Tyree, Stephen King, etc??? This list looks like my AP English reading list.
I would take the Autobiography of Malcolm X though, for sure. I always make sure I keep a copy of that book on hand!
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Who says that reading classical literature means that you’re opposed to reading Patterson, Koontz, or King? They simply didn’t make the top ten.
Preference is not necessarily exclusionary.
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King…. if you look at the list of nominees almost all of them are “classic literature” I did not see any modern novels on there, of course I did not read EVERY SINCE nominee. And I do not believe that people really ARE opposed to reading the authors I mention, I believe it is my first option… people are trying to look smart.
I see all the time when you ask someone who their favorite books authors are, they almost always want to mention these famous literary works rather than admit they like a modern novel, for fear it will be interpreted indicating lesser intelligence or bad taste.
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Lord of the Rings?
But then again, people tend to favor books that change their views and their lives, when given this kind of a choice.
I mean, Tom Clancy may write good entertainment, but it’s not the same as a book that effects your way of seeing the world.
And then, some people just like to look smart, I suppose 🙂
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Joanna,
There were modern novels on the list: for example, Tony Morrison and Ian McEwan are contemporary authors. But if you’re looking for stuff outside so-called “literary fiction”, there were people such as J.K. Rowling and Ken Follett on the list.
I don’t know about other people, but I chose some of my favourite books. That’s how I saw this poll: chose the books that mean a lot to you, so much that you’d bring them anywhere with you. Not “choose something light and entertaining for reading on a beach”.
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Which translation of the divine comedy will you go with?
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Mira- Believe me, I would not take all James Patterson or Dean Kontz, but shoot, I would take a few!! I would also have to take my two favorite novels of all time: A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Outsider. Also riding along with me would be the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Autobiography of Assata Shakur, The Isis Papers, Freeing the world to death, etc.
But I have a question? If I can only bring ten books, what will I do for the second month on the island?
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Joanna:
“But I have a question? If I can only bring ten books, what will I do for the second month on the island?”
That is just it: you want to bring books that you can reread and still be able to enjoy. Stephen King is good but I have never reread any of his books nor have any desire to. Not so for Tolkien, Homer or the Bible. You can reread them and still enjoy them and get something out of them you did not get the first time or the second time.
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Rimbambo said:
“Which translation of the divine comedy will you go with?”
Charles Eliot Norton. It is what I have on hand. It is a prose translation. When I read it before I used the Mandelbaum translation. It is in verse and has the Italian on one side of the page – which is probably better.
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I don’t even want to read those the FIRST TIME, let alone again and again. The books I listed in my most recent comment are the ones I personally would read again and again. The only one I WOULD give a chance is Tolkien, I actually have the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on my shelf waiting to be read. I LOVE reading, and read 10 to 15 books a month, but I have NEVER had a desire to read the so called “classics” If I am going to have to read the same books over and over, I think I would stick with mostly non fiction.
Hmmm… what ten would I choose? let’s see….
A prayer for Owen Meany
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Soul on Ice
Isis Papers
Freeing the World to Death
The Outsiders
Shock Doctrine
Trojan Horse: Death of a Dark Nation
The Outsiders
Black Boy
Those are the ones I can think of right now. Maybe you are right about James Patterson and Stephen King, but I would much prefer THESE books than Shakespear or Homer of any of that crap LOL
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I’ll say this: there is a reason the “classics” have stood the test of time. People genuinely prefer reading them.
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See, now I always assumed people read them because they are forced to!! I cannot understand reading those books by choice! LOL!
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Honestly, only Dante and Homer are those I’d consider “classics”. Also, The Bible (though in a different way).
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Oh, and Poe.
But not Diop, autobiography of Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Tolkien, Orwell…
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ok list for me
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Dr. Grzlickson said:
“Most HBD sites welcome debate, even trolls like Obsiaian. These anti-racist sites are Nazis when it comes to editing/deleting comments.”
I have a comment policy to keep from being overrun by trolls. There is a link to it at the top of each page. Read it. Otherwise your comments will get deleted, like this one because it is way off topic.
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It’s funny that “Life of Pi” came in so low because it’s actually a story about a boy who survives for nearly a year at sea by himself and how he manages to do that, his thought process, the presence or lack of presence of God(s), etc.
I have to second Joanna on her sentiment. I’d rather be 2 books short than to read the Odyssey or Dante’s Divine Comedy ever again. And I’m an English major. I sit in the old British and World Lit classes with eyes glazed over thinking “Why are we keeping these stories/poems alive? I can see why John Milton’s wife ran off on him…I bet he never shut up. The Epic of Gilgamesh sucks. Do I *really* have to take a Women’s Lit course to read stories by women? I wonder if they sell Chili Fritos on campus.”
Anyway, enjoy your reads. Let us know how it goes 😉
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Joanna,
I chose books that would take me more than two days to read. None on my list are in the top ten or even the honorable mentioned, although I’ve read a few on these list. I do think that some classics appeal to the modern day reader, although I prefer 19th century Russian novelist and others prefer the Greek classics.
It is not pretension, but I think the taste may be like minded as the commentors here, have migrated to the same blog.
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Hathor said:
“It is not pretension, but I think the taste may be like minded as the commentors here, have migrated to the same blog.”
To add to that: Even though I did not take part in the nominations, half of the top nominated books were books I had read and for the most part liked. And many of the others were books I was interested in. That is no accident: the poll was taking place on my blog. I have done posts featuring Orwell, Morrison, Diop, Adichie, Tolkien, Dante and others. So, all things being equal, my blog would tend to attract people interested in those authors as opposed to others.
That is not to say that most who come here like, say, Dante or would ever like him. But it is to say that there are probably more Dante lovers here than in the general population.
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Well, maybe the problem was the way each of us understood the poll. Some people saw it as “books you’d like to bring at a desert island to entertain yourself”. Others simply listed their favourite books. Some, like me, I guess, listed 10 books that they consider to be the best, in a way, those that should be kept at all costs, even if you’re on a desert island. I guess in my mind, the poll was more along the lines of “the Earth is about to explode and you can take (save) only 10 books with you on a spaceship”.
At least it was the way I formed my list and the way I voted.
Then again, I’ve read many “boring classic” book in school. Russian classics, for example, are compulsory read (and there are not many 16 year olds today who can understand them). Same goes for Gilgamesh, Homer and Dante. And yes, being forced to read something is never a good way to like it. But there are so many good stuff I’d probably never read otherwise.
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Abagond,
I would love to see a list of the top 10 books about African history. I’ve been trying to find a good one but all I could find were books about African-America history starting from the slave trade forward. I would love to know more about what was going on in Africa years or even centuries before that. Even a great college text book on the topic would do.
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Ah. Lord of the Rings is probably the most influental book in my life. Never read the bible and probably never will, being an atheist, lol! LOTR is way better, heh!
I’d personally like to have a collection of H.P. Lovecraft and also Mark Twain’s “Letters from Earth”, being an atheist and all, lol!
Iliad & Odysseus is a most. Maybe collected Sherlock Holmes as well? Philip K. Dick?
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I cannot tell you how influential the Bible was to early writings. Like, to the point of me not understanding a lot of things in stories without having read the Bible. I kinda wish I had read it back then. Mayyyyybe I’d take it on a deserted island.
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I’d take Gilgamesh over bible anyday. It predates it anyway. Noah and all that crap.
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@lookingforanswers:
Howard Zinn's A People’s History of the United States has a chapter outlining the history of Sub-Saharan East Africa and detailing the rise of the slave trade throughout the Americas, particularly in the United States. I think it’s definitely worth a read. That chapter is not long (only 13 pages), but it delivers an amazing amount of detail using plain language and facts; I remember the horror I felt after reading an account of a slave ship. Really, any American should read that book. Anyway, it’s available at any library.
@abagond:
What is your opinion of James Baldwin, the Harlem-born novelist and essayist? His essays – particularly Notes of a Native Son – provide considerable insight into early 20th century race relations in America, in all their cruelty and complexity. Moreover, Giovanni’s Room and Go Tell It on the Mountain are true classics of American literature.
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James Baldwin is great. He is like how every writer should be: fearless and care only for the truth.
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Abagond,
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley is mandatory reading for every blackman on this planet, regardless of financial status, national origin, or intellectual capacity. My uncle gave me his copy to read when I was in middle-school, and I haven’t been the same since. Malcolm X made me the blackman that I am today, and I am forever grateful to him and his family for their sacrifice and love for black people!!!
Tyrone
20/20 Vision
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^ I think it should be mandatory reading for all Americans, not just black Americans.
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@Lookingforanswers
I have read several titles by Cheikh Anta Diop, namely “Civilization or Barbarism”,”Black Africa”, and “Pre-Colonial Africa”. The information that this man presents is powerful and overwelming.(see “The Dosage Test” , etal.)
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I love Dean Kootz and Stephen King as well as all the erudite titles.
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Joanna: If you think Shakespeare is “crap” then you have never read it properly or seen it performed. Shakespeare’s plays are amazing and fabulous.
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