Desert Island Reads Challenge

Desert Island Reads Preamble

If you were stranded on a desert island… what entertainment would you want to keep you company? Inspired by a classic BBC radio show, Imyril @ There’s Always Room for One More created this challenge for Wyrd & Wonder 2021. So, I’m keeping my responses fantasy-focused. Imyril defines the parameters for this challenge as follows:

• 📚 Eight (audio)books – your Desert Island Reads float ashore in a watertight chest, phew!
  • If you want to take a series, each book in it counts as one of your eight unless a collected edition has been published. So Temeraire would be all your books; The Lord of the Rings could be just one (rather heavy) book
  • No, you can’t have a fully-loaded ebook reader. Nice try.
• 🎬 A podcast, TV show or movie – for when you really can’t read any more
  • If you choose Podcast / TV show: yes, you get all the episodes / seasons
  • If you choose Movie: since I’m being lenient, yes this can be a series / franchise
• 💖 One thing you just can’t do without
  • A favourite food, something comforting, a touch of luxury – this can be pretty much whatever you like, so long as it’s inanimate, can’t help you escape or communicate with the outside world, and doesn’t require electricity or internet connectivity
• Bonus: you can listen to audiobooks/podcasts or watch your TV show/movie (on some magical waterproof device that doesn’t need power and has very limited storage, shh)
• Don’t worry: you already have access to any medication you require to manage medical conditions, plus a well-stocked first aid kit

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My Desert Island Picks

📚 Read

I came up with the first four titles with no thinking. They require not further explanation! Then I put a little more thought and came up with 11 titles. How to narrow it down… 🤔 Alright, I’ve got it down to 10…. this truly is a challenge. Well. Let the record state that I have now removed Nevermoor, because I am not sure how happy I would be having only the first book at hand. Here are my final eight:

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
4. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
5. In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente – Did you know I read this book about 10 years ago, haven’t reread it since, but still consider it a favourite with high reread value? It’s a dense collection of interconnected short stories (à la One Thousand and One Nights). I think it would provide hours of imaginative reading.
6. Stardust by Neil Gaiman – A long time favourite and exemplar of the sort of high fantasy I enjoy. There are only a handful of novels I enjoy similarily.
7. The Scar by China Miéville – Perhaps the most unexpected entry on this list, I have reread this book at least once before. It brings some diversity to the type of fantasies I’ve included here. I do love a seafaring story featuring an impossibly large creature.
8. When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore – Another title I chose to bring diversity to the novels I’ve already listed. Young adult magical realism romance! When I need to breakaway from all that secondary world epic stuff.

🎬 Watch

This was a toss up between Good Omens and The Lord of the Rings. In the end, I went with Good Omens for three reasons:

1. I find watching The Lord of the Rings emotionally taxing so it doesn’t hold a lot of rewatch value (I need at least a year between watches).
2. I have a good supply of Tolkien stories with the two novels I’ve chosen to bring.
3. Good Omens has plenty of merits on its own, and again tells a story different from anything I’ve selected so far.

💖 Comfort

Pizza? Should that be my comfort item? It was the first thing to come to my mind. However, my bff just asked, “Do you get unlimited pizza or do you get one pizza for all eternity, cos if you just get one pizza that’s not going to be much comfort”. I think I will bring a big smooshy comfy pillow… then I can enjoy my books and television from a comfortable position. I do love my pillow, even when I’m not trapped on an island.

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What would you bring to keep your mind sharp and imaginative? Consider yourself tagged if you like! Drop your link in the comment (even if you did this tag last May for Wyrd And Wonder).