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 GABE
SAUCEDO
RED PONY CLOCK
1. State
by State with the State by The State
This book is just brilliant: a totally fake guide to traveling
the U.S. by some of the funniest people who have ever walked
the earth. Its genius lies in their complete avoidance of
any legitimate references to the states being described.
2. Our
Dumb Century by The Onion
I'm a bit of a history buff and a huge onion fan, so it's
great seeing how those guys would have reported the fake news
of yesteryear. My favorite section is the early 1900's when
they employ some really funny archaic english.
3. A
Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
These books are really great in that they're for children
but don't make any of the concessions usually made for that
audience. There's tragedy on every page, and the author's
not afraid to throw in some obscure language now and then.
There's also whimsy galore, which is always a good thing,
if you ask me.
4. Daddy's
Boy by Chris Elliott
My favorite TV show of all time is Chris Elliott's Get
a Life. Knowing this, my friend Cassie found this book
in a thrift store and gave it to me. It's a phony account
of Chris's youth, living in the shadow of his superstar father.
Again, it's totally full of lies. I guess that's what I like.
5. The
Neverending Story by Michael Ende
More fantasy and nonsense. Also, a ton of whimsy. The usual
Gabe stuff.
MARTY DONALD
THE LUCKSMITHS
Presuming
the usual hypothetical parameters are at play here (eternal
solitude, etc.), I've decided to err to the hefty in this
list; given the circumstances, there doesn't seem to be much
point in pissing about with novellas. Tempting though it was,
I also thought it might be contrary to the spirit of the exercise
to include a reference book (maybe the complete Encyclopedia
Brittanica, or The Book of Lists, which I pretty
much knew by heart as a teenager) or some sort of practical
handbook—Desert Island Survival for Dummies, perhaps.
Sticking to fiction, then, I will have to preface my list
with an all-too-well-worn apology for its masculinist and
American bias.
 1.
Underworld by Don De Lillo
His masterpiece. De Lillo is a dazzlingly brilliant and original
writer; as with all his work, there is so much depth here,
you could read it a dozen times without tiring of it (which
would be handy, all things considered). It would be worth
bringing along for the prologue alone—one of the most
amazing passages of descriptive writing I've read.
2.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
An easier read than Underworld, but no less a work for it.
Funny, moving, wise and true; proof that a serious and important
book can be every bit as entertaining and "unputdownable"
as some glossy, airport bookstore piece of crap. When pressed
(or, more likely, when drunk), I have been known to call this
my favourite book. Probably.
3. Infinite
Jest by David Foster Wallace
From the sheer size of the book (over a thousand pages in
my paperback edition, including the hundred-plus pages of
fine print "notes and errata") to its intentional abstruseness,
it is (very deliberately) a mental and physical challenge
to complete Infinite Jest. For all that, however, this
sprawling social satire is ridiculously entertaining and often
hilarious, involving the members of an elite junior tennis
academy and a neighboring halfway house, a terrorist cell
of wheelchair-bound Québecois separatists, and the
search for a lost (and lethal) experimental film from which
the novel takes its name. Above all, a simply astonishing
feat of imagination: How could he think of all that?
4. USA
by John Dos Passos
As with many of the books I supposedly studied at university,
I turned up to the first week of a two-part lecture on this
trilogy not having read a word of it. Genuinely excited by
what I heard, however, I went straight to the campus bookshop
and had almost finished it by the concluding lecture a week
later. Written in the 1930s, USA is an audacious attempt to
depict an entire society in the first decades of the twentieth
century. It's a modernist masterpiece, all but dispensing
with conventions of plot and character in favor of a variety
of experimental styles, from stream-of-consciousness imagery
to montages of newsreel reportage and historical biography.
Amazing.
5. Where
I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver
Hopefully, by the time of my unfortunate marooning, someone
will have published Carver's complete and unabridged works;
otherwise I'll settle for my dog-eared copy of what I consider
the best collection of his stories. Carver is probably my
favorite writer, and certainly the one I come back to and
reread most often. The beautiful economy of his style—not
a word wasted, and an uncanny turn of phrase—and his
eye for the telling detail have made him as much of an influence
on my own work as any songwriter has been, I think.
 LOVELIKEFIRE
Our mutual
book would be Tour Smart by Martin Atkins.
In case we ever got rescued, we could plan our entire next
year's tour and organize ourselves while we were on the desert
island.
Ted's
book:
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Since I will be stuck on a desert island, I might as well
get something meaningful accomplished—like…unlocking
the mysteries of the universe, for example. I could scratch
the answers onto a cave wall.
Dave's
book:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
This book helped me see where I need be and that when you
go in your chosen direction, the universe provides, so I'd
want to read this again for inspiration.
Robert's
book:
I am ever the pragmatist. My desert island book is the SAS
Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate,
on Land or at Sea by John "Lofty" Wiseman.
Ann's
book:
The Complete Stories by Flannery O' Connor
I think reading her short stories on a desert island would
be wildly entertaining and very dark.
 THAO
Omnivore's
Dilemna by Michael Pollan
An exploration of present day meals (from Industrial Organic
to fast food to hunted and gathered) and what to eat when
we could eat anything. There's a really interesting bit about
the prevalence of corn. And I could finally only eat seasonal
and local foods: deserted island foods.
A
Wrinkle in Time by Madeline Engle
I really loved this book when I was in third grade but can't
remember why. I bet I would have a lot of time to remind myself.
Enormous
Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
A collection of the short stories from my favorite author.
Incredible economy with words. I would steal her lines for
my lyrics but no one would know because no one would hear
my songs. Ever.
The Bible
Because then I would know what everyone was talking about
all the time.
Django:
The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend by Michael Dregni
I started this biography a long time ago but had to return
it to the library before I could really sink into it. However,
I do remember reading a passage about Django cooking a porcupine
on the road, and the author explained how he had removed all
the needles by using just fire and a straw, and that is both
inspirational and informative. If there is more to be had
of that ilk, then yes please, give it to me.
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(July,
2008)
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