On Saturday (Sometimes) I'm a Litblogger

I like to read. I like to think about reading. I like to blog about reading. What am I, crazy?

***

Does anyone wander through library stacks anymore? I mean especially kids. Are there still young boys who "hole up" in the library, awed by the quiet ranks of books, each one a voice, a flight, a life and death -- and each one waiting (it almost seems) for their one special reader.

***

John McGahern said:

I think that the whole of literature would collapse without the solitary reader. No matter how people try to legislate for literature with university courses, with prizes, with reviews, it still all comes down to the solitary reader being king and queen. You never know what the reader is going to come up with. And if somebody likes a book, it may be because of a fresh insight that the author never dreamed of. A book only lives if it finds lovers. Lovers talk.

[HT: Anecdotal Evidence]

***

Five books for the proverbial desert island (because Jared asked). I would bring books that were large in scope as well as vivid and detailed feasts for the senses. Off the top of my head:

1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Homer complete (and I don't mean "Simpson")
   
3. Les Miserables
4. The Collected Poems of Mary Oliver (if you don't understand this choice, you need to find yourself a collection of her poems, sit down and start reading asap)
   
5. The Complete Shakespeare

Of course the Bible, as Jared says, is a given. And if I were allowed just a few more books, I might add The Little Prince, the plays of Thornton Wilder, and perhaps St. John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul, a book I've never read, but surely a long desert island sojourn is the place to discover at least one new book.

My question for Jared (and anyone else), if you could bring one book that you've never read to that desert island, which would it be?