If i am going to a desert island, I am definitely taking all the volumes of Proust! Finally enough time in life to read them slowly again and again and soak in the beauty. Sir, I would love to know if you had read proust too!
Awesome choice, lots of authors and works I want to check out someday (I think I’m overdue for Borges, Rilke, and Earthsea in particular). For me maybe Homer - Odyssey Ovid - Metamorphoses Shakespeare - Complete or Macbeth Faulkner - Sound and Fury Hemingway - Old Man Steinbeck - East of Eden Sartre - Nausea Camus - The Plague Philip K Dick - first Library of America collection book or Three Stigmata Ursula K Leguin - Complete Hainish or Lathe of Heaven Would be it I think; I might bring Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider or Kazantzakis’ Zorba as they’re books I go back to regularly, and I want to spend more time with the Illiad and other works of Leguin, but that’s where things stand now.
So many great books… 10…Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 9…Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery 8… The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy..7…Journey to the End of the Night …by Celine 6 Death on the Installment Plan by Celine 5…Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell 4… Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart 3… The Town & The City by Kerouac 2…Hunger by Knut Hamsun 1… Nausea by Sartre
I am halfway through Wizard Of Earthsea right now and it is incredible so far. I am most likely going to get that chunker of a hardback. Le Guin is an amazing writer.
Hi Greg, found your channel recently. I am watching your vids with increasing frequency and snoop through your back-catalogue for recommendations of books and movies as well as philosophy content. As for desert island book picks here are some of mine: -Adv of Huck Finn M Twain - probably your best writer -sth by PK Dick, but for sure not Scanner Darkly, probably Palmer Edritch or Martian time slip -Cyberiad by S. Lem -sth by Joseph Conrad, probably Heart of Darkness or Secret Agent, but most his books are top notch -Saragossa Manuscript By J Potocki - fun, adventure sth to alternate with the more serious works, just like M Twain's book -Among Russians I'd pick up Gogol most certainly Dead Souls or Petersburg tales -T Mann's Der Zauberberg/ The Magic Mountain -Proust - all of in search of lost time series, as I'd probably have the time to finally read it -Maybe drop in another american writer, like Cormack McCarthy's Blood Meridian or All The Pretty Horses but perhaps sth less grim could do like P Roth's american pastoral? There are so many and very prone to drop in and out of lists like that depending on a moment's mood swing... BTW- what do you think of Derek Parfit? of Reasons and Persons fame? I am interested in a Philosopher's take before I commit to studying his volumes. Keep up the good work! Regards from Scotland!
I have the Gormengast omnibus. Have read the first page about five times. Some day will read farther as I find it very intriguing. Can't really come up with 10. But second New Sun. Goedel, Escher and Bach. On a desert isle would help me keep up the momentum to keep reading.
I think for me it'll be.. The Bible (if not allowed, then The Gospel of John) War & Peace Don Quixote Emma - Jane Austen Chekhov Short Stories Siddhartha Wordsworth - Collected Poems (with Two Part Prelude) Middlemarch Paradise Lost The Brothers K Probably a bit stereotypical; I should read more things!
I love these kinds of videos. It really tells a lot about a person what books they would pick. That Borges collection would definitely be in my list and Gormenghast is something I will have to get to eventually. My list would go something like this, assuming I can "cheat" a bit as well with some complete series that are really just one continuous story broken up: The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe) The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) Collected Fictions (Borges) The Complete Short Stories (Hemingway) Suttree (McCarthy) Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) 1984 (Orwell) Dune (Herbert) Hyperion Cantos (Simmons)
@@GregoryBSadler Perhaps, though Book of the New Sun and Lord of the Rings were both written as one book before they were published and really only split for the sake of practicality. The individual novels are artificial constructs.
great picks dr. sadler! i've heard a lot about gormenghast and this has convinced me to finally put it on my short list. a scanner darkly has always been my favorite pkd novel. have you ever read any thomas pynchon? similar conspiratorial themes to pkd.
That's a great book haul for a desert island or any place where isolation is the main variable. I can go with Baudelaire, especially in a dual language edition. Borges, definitely, he's a master, but I'd go with the original Spanish since that is my native language, as well as Borges'. Cordwainer Smith was a revelation for me when I first read him. I love his stories. They are so unique, and the language is mesmerizing. Le Guin, what can one say. She's a gateway to other dimensions. The omnibus of the Earthsea series is a great pick. I would add a few of my own picks: Peake's Gormenghast trilogy would be one, Herodotus, The Histories and Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, the others. Keep reading and pondering.
Interesting list! If we can perhaps stretch the allowed books to include non-fiction, 10 books that I would never tire of reading, and in no particular order, would be: Terry Pratchett: NIght Watch. Terry Pratchett: Guards! Guards! Iain M Banks: Excession. Mary Beard: SPQR. Dr. Eric Cline: 1177BC - The Year Civilisation Collapsed. Prof. Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time. Steven Erikson: Midnight Tides. Steven Erikson: Reaper's Gale. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. Suetonius: The 12 Caesars. If something went horribly wrong and I ended up with only one book my choice would easily be Night Watch by Pratchett.
These are in no particular order: Divine Comedy, The Complete works of Plato(it counts in my mind), The Bible, Odyssey, The Portable Romantic Poets, The Greek Plays(includes works from all the tragedians), Complete works of Shakespeare, Epic of Gilgamesh, Paradise Lost, and Don Quixote. Subject to change.
@@mielipuolisiili7240 Depends which canon of the bible you're using how many books are in it, but yes, that goes without saying. Which is why I didn't need to say it
Here is my list: : The Hebrew Bible at no. 1 Moby Dick The Heart of Darkness Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Don Quixote Berserk Manga Plato's Dialogues The Myth of Sisyphus by Camu Solaris by Stanislaw lem I'd have to thing about the last one... Ummm
@@GregoryBSadler Alright you got me I broke the rules. These just came off the top of my head. I'd pick one of Plato's Dialogues than, probably Phaedrus or the Republic. I'll take Macbeth instead of Meditations, and since the Hebrew Bible is also a collection, I'll take the Torah only, obviously. A deep well of enlightenment for the thirsty seeker in the desert of life.
Thank you for everything you do Greg! I love your videos and I’ve been watching you for years. Thank you for teaching us
You're very welcome
Thanks for the additions to my reading list! Looking forward to checking some of these out. 👍
You're very welcome
❤ Gormenghast. My favorite high fantasy trilogy
It's certainly a great one!
If i am going to a desert island, I am definitely taking all the volumes of Proust! Finally enough time in life to read them slowly again and again and soak in the beauty.
Sir, I would love to know if you had read proust too!
I’ve read Proust, and wasn’t into his prose
Awesome choice, lots of authors and works I want to check out someday (I think I’m overdue for Borges, Rilke, and Earthsea in particular). For me maybe
Homer - Odyssey
Ovid - Metamorphoses
Shakespeare - Complete or Macbeth
Faulkner - Sound and Fury
Hemingway - Old Man
Steinbeck - East of Eden
Sartre - Nausea
Camus - The Plague
Philip K Dick - first Library of America collection book or Three Stigmata
Ursula K Leguin - Complete Hainish or Lathe of Heaven
Would be it I think; I might bring Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider or Kazantzakis’ Zorba as they’re books I go back to regularly, and I want to spend more time with the Illiad and other works of Leguin, but that’s where things stand now.
You'll definitely want to check those three out!
So many great books… 10…Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 9…Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery 8… The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy..7…Journey to the End of the Night …by Celine 6 Death on the Installment Plan by Celine 5…Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell 4… Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart 3… The Town & The City by Kerouac 2…Hunger by Knut Hamsun 1… Nausea by Sartre
First time hearing about mervyn peake and he sounds very interesting! Thanks!
You’re welcome
I am halfway through Wizard Of Earthsea right now and it is incredible so far. I am most likely going to get that chunker of a hardback. Le Guin is an amazing writer.
She certainly is. I’ll be teaching a semester long class again this semester on Earthsea
Hi Greg, found your channel recently. I am watching your vids with increasing frequency and snoop through your back-catalogue for recommendations of books and movies as well as philosophy content.
As for desert island book picks here are some of mine:
-Adv of Huck Finn M Twain - probably your best writer
-sth by PK Dick, but for sure not Scanner Darkly, probably Palmer Edritch or Martian time slip
-Cyberiad by S. Lem
-sth by Joseph Conrad, probably Heart of Darkness or Secret Agent, but most his books are top notch
-Saragossa Manuscript By J Potocki - fun, adventure sth to alternate with the more serious works, just like M Twain's book
-Among Russians I'd pick up Gogol most certainly Dead Souls or Petersburg tales
-T Mann's Der Zauberberg/ The Magic Mountain
-Proust - all of in search of lost time series, as I'd probably have the time to finally read it
-Maybe drop in another american writer, like Cormack McCarthy's Blood Meridian or All The Pretty Horses but perhaps sth less grim could do like P Roth's american pastoral?
There are so many and very prone to drop in and out of lists like that depending on a moment's mood swing...
BTW- what do you think of Derek Parfit? of Reasons and Persons fame? I am interested in a Philosopher's take before I commit to studying his volumes.
Keep up the good work! Regards from Scotland!
I've not read much Parfit. Nothing anyone has said about his works at conferences makes him sound particularly interesting to me
I have the Gormengast omnibus.
Have read the first page about five times. Some day will read farther as I find it very intriguing.
Can't really come up with 10.
But second New Sun.
Goedel, Escher and Bach. On a desert isle would help me keep up the momentum to keep reading.
Would you consider GEB a literary work?
I think for me it'll be..
The Bible (if not allowed, then The Gospel of John)
War & Peace
Don Quixote
Emma - Jane Austen
Chekhov Short Stories
Siddhartha
Wordsworth - Collected Poems (with Two Part Prelude)
Middlemarch
Paradise Lost
The Brothers K
Probably a bit stereotypical; I should read more things!
I love these kinds of videos. It really tells a lot about a person what books they would pick. That Borges collection would definitely be in my list and Gormenghast is something I will have to get to eventually. My list would go something like this, assuming I can "cheat" a bit as well with some complete series that are really just one continuous story broken up:
The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
Collected Fictions (Borges)
The Complete Short Stories (Hemingway)
Suttree (McCarthy)
Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami)
1984 (Orwell)
Dune (Herbert)
Hyperion Cantos (Simmons)
I think taking entire series of novels like that would be a different kind of list
@@GregoryBSadler Perhaps, though Book of the New Sun and Lord of the Rings were both written as one book before they were published and really only split for the sake of practicality. The individual novels are artificial constructs.
That’s true. And Hyperion Cantos, according to Simmons, is actually just two long novels
great picks dr. sadler! i've heard a lot about gormenghast and this has convinced me to finally put it on my short list. a scanner darkly has always been my favorite pkd novel. have you ever read any thomas pynchon? similar conspiratorial themes to pkd.
A bit, a long way back. Don't remember much except not particularly enjoying his stuff
That's a great book haul for a desert island or any place where isolation is the main variable. I can go with Baudelaire, especially in a dual language edition. Borges, definitely, he's a master, but I'd go with the original Spanish since that is my native language, as well as Borges'. Cordwainer Smith was a revelation for me when I first read him. I love his stories. They are so unique, and the language is mesmerizing. Le Guin, what can one say. She's a gateway to other dimensions. The omnibus of the Earthsea series is a great pick. I would add a few of my own picks: Peake's Gormenghast trilogy would be one, Herodotus, The Histories and Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, the others. Keep reading and pondering.
I suppose we could consider Herodotus and Thucydides "literary works"
@@GregoryBSadler , Herodotus definitely, Thucydides probably.
Interesting list! If we can perhaps stretch the allowed books to include non-fiction, 10 books that I would never tire of reading, and in no particular order, would be:
Terry Pratchett: NIght Watch.
Terry Pratchett: Guards! Guards!
Iain M Banks: Excession.
Mary Beard: SPQR.
Dr. Eric Cline: 1177BC - The Year Civilisation Collapsed.
Prof. Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time.
Steven Erikson: Midnight Tides.
Steven Erikson: Reaper's Gale.
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose.
Suetonius: The 12 Caesars.
If something went horribly wrong and I ended up with only one book my choice would easily be Night Watch by Pratchett.
@@DarkFire515 The Name of the Rose IS Fiction, though. Cool list.
That is quite a Pratchett endorsement!
These are in no particular order: Divine Comedy, The Complete works of Plato(it counts in my mind), The Bible, Odyssey, The Portable Romantic Poets, The Greek Plays(includes works from all the tragedians), Complete works of Shakespeare, Epic of Gilgamesh, Paradise Lost, and Don Quixote. Subject to change.
Nice list
Complete works is cheating.
@@GregoryBSadler Fair enough. If I had to choose a single work by Plato and Shakespeare I would go Republic and Macbeth.
@@GregoryBSadler Shouldn't Bible be then considered cheating too, since it's 66 books in one?
@@mielipuolisiili7240 Depends which canon of the bible you're using how many books are in it, but yes, that goes without saying. Which is why I didn't need to say it
Great video
Thanks
The Devils is also my favourite Dostoyevsky book, much because of Camus in reality
You mean you like it better because Camus took it on as a play project?
Love your list ❤
Thanks!
The only problem with washing other book tubers channels is that it only increases the tbr!
There will probably always be more books one needs to read
What did you think of A Scanner Darkly, the film? Interested in your opinions on cinema
It was pretty good. But the bar is low for Dick adaptations
Hyperion Cantos. All 4. Easily.
And that would be it?
I’m curious which Zelazny book(s) almost made the list?
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
Nice title!
Thanks
Infinite jest, bible
Ta biblia is the books, as in multiple. Not A book
Here is my list: :
The Hebrew Bible at no. 1
Moby Dick
The Heart of Darkness
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Don Quixote
Berserk Manga
Plato's Dialogues
The Myth of Sisyphus by Camu
Solaris by Stanislaw lem
I'd have to thing about the last one... Ummm
The 10th would be Meditations by Aurelius
Other contenders:
Oedipus Rex
Hamlet/Macbeth
Mahabrata/Upanishads
@@1995yuda Meditations would be philosophy not literature. Plato's dialogues is not a book, but a collection of a number of books
@@GregoryBSadler Alright you got me I broke the rules. These just came off the top of my head. I'd pick one of Plato's Dialogues than, probably Phaedrus or the Republic. I'll take Macbeth instead of Meditations, and since the Hebrew Bible is also a collection, I'll take the Torah only, obviously. A deep well of enlightenment for the thirsty seeker in the desert of life.