| Music
fans should all be familiar with those ubiquitous top five desert
island discs, immortalized forever in literature by Nick Hornby's
High Fidelity. As a part of the our music issue (and
a change of pace for them), the HBC thought we'd ask a few musicians
for their top five desert island books. The results, we think,
are rather interesting. A few people also took the idea quite
literally and chose to err on the side of pragmatism, choosing
survival guides and books on food. Others chose to bring favorites
and books of great length (after all, there's no telling how
long one would be on said island). But perhaps the most charming
revelation is the rather deeply-seated love for literature that
some of these musicians have revealed. After all, what's not
to love about a rock star who loves books?
 BJ
WARSHAW
PARTS & LABOR
1.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
My favorite of the Yoknapatawtha County books, especially
for the confounding but sublime shifts in point of view and
time.
2. The
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Contains my favorite final line of any novel I've read.
3. Catch
22 by Joseph Heller
The most brutally hilarious and venomous anti-war satire I've
read.
4. Cat's
Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
One of my favorite writers. I only just recently got to Cat's
Cradle, and it might be my favorite by him.
5. Animal
Farm by George Orwell
I read this one every couple of years.
HELEN SCHREINER
JEFFREY LEWIS AND THE JITTERS
I'm
assuming for the purposes of this list that my whole band
is stranded together on said island.
1. Mastering
the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
I think this book might inspire efforts towards fine cuisine
in an otherwise dower atmosphere dominated by a bland diet.
2. Field
Guide to Wild Edible Plants by Various Authors
I own a different version of this book and am always reading
it to try and memorize what I can eat if I am ever stranded
on a desert island, so it would be awesome if I could just
have the book there.
3. Gandhi
an Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth
by Mohandas K. Gandhi
I think this book should be required reading for everyone
on the island to promote non-violence and understanding.
4. Scary
Stories Treasury: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and More Tales to Chill
Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
I can't think of anything scarier than reading these stories
aloud on a deserted island in the middle of the night.
5. Wild
Iris by Louise Glück
This would be my secret stowaway book that I would read alone
in my lean-to.
MISHA
In
no order:
1. Goldbug Variations by Richard Powers
Powers's works are like intricately designed, rigorously built
machines, but with a single aching heart.
2. Autobiography
of Red by Anne Carson
For showing that it's possible to be grand and intimate at
the same time and for the exquisite lyricism.
3. Dance,
Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
This is the first book we read of his, in ninth grade, stuck
at home on a blistering day. Go Houston Public Library! The
contemporary Japanese magic realism thing really took our
sci-fi loving hearts by storm.
4. Naguib
Mahfouz
He's just such a keen and fine mind and writer; nothing will
replace for us the Palace Trilogies for the balance
of social commentary, family politics, and gender roles.
5. Bernard
Herriman
Who says comics aren't books? The progenitor of Calvin
and Hobbes—strange, sweet, and unbelievable that
this work found a home in its days.
Our second 5 (because we're dorks):
1. Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
Spy novel, allegory, and whodunit, all in one! SWEET!
2. Collected
Short Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
Borges comes across weirdly naked, fantastical, yes, but in
the end, just good ole fashioned crazy nice.
3. Palm
of Hand stories by Yasunari Kawabata
They're small and very perfect, like snowflakes, and very
cold. Perfect for a hot desert island.
4. Snow
Crash by Neal Stephenson
Ok, we know, dorky, but still, we had the very first edition,
before the hype—just us and the white soft cover, no
blurbs of affirmation, just a streak of blue/black up the
middle. And then we lost it in a move. Sometimes at night,
it hovers still on our bookshelf.
 5.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Another great writer and craftsman; brilliant, reserved yet
experimental, Ishiguro inspires us to think quietly.
JOE KNAPP
SON AMBULANCE
1. Words
Are Something Else by David Albahari
This book is on the list for its humor and surrealism.
2. Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Because you know you exist by looking at a tree, and it would
be a past-time exploring the island in search of Nausea reading
perches.
3. The
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Even without a Bible to decipher the numerous references,
this book deserves a lifetime of repeated reads.
4. After
Dark by Haruki Murakami
I wanted to pick something from this favorite contemporary
author. Besides, I need to see what happens and there is bound
to be one peculiar book I will wonder why I brought.
5. From
Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun
Because I still haven't finished it.
STEFAN ROGENMOSER
THE EXPLORERS CLUB
1. Invisible
Man by Ralph Ellison
This is one of the best written novels of the twentieth century,
and when I read it in college, it changed my perspective on
many things and the story completely blew my mind, page after
page, for all 500-odd pages.
 2.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Ranks up there as one of the funniest and most satirical novels
that are readable. This story is very psychedelic and experimental
while still being wildly funny, interesting, and accessible,
and it still makes a strong statement about a lot of injustices
that took place in Dresden in 1945 and all around the rest
of the world.
3. The
Bible
It's very moving and has transformed literally millions of
people worldwide. And every good author alludes to it over
and over. It's just a good source of information and a good
read, even though parts can get a little boring.
4. The
Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
This novel got me hooked on Raymond Chandler and his style
of pulp fiction. This story is very humorous and is perhaps
one of the best detective stories written. Chandler's descriptions
are unbelievably good and down to earth, while remaining in
character for Philip Marlowe, one of the greatest characters
and detectives ever created on paper.
5.
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
If I was really going to be stuck on an island, I would be
able to read this novel several times and probably still not
make sense out of its myriad of details, events, and perspectives.
It's about the South, of course: how the Civil War and reconstruction
set the South back so many years, how the South was unable
to cope with this major change, and how people embellish everything
just to make themselves look better than they really are or
to make other people that they don't like appear to be "demons"
when they are not.
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