4 books to take to a desert island

Calum Maclean


In the highly likely event that your solo mission to sail around the world in a bathtub fails, you will almost certainly find yourself upon a desert island. Marooned, surrounded by a huge expanse of water with no means of escape, there is nothing you can do except wait to be rescued. Your attempt at a world record is in tatters, as is your chance of making it back to Southampton in time for their game against Watford next weekend.  Gutted.

However, there is one positive (two if you count the tan): you happened to have packed four books, providing yourself with entertainment until your rescue. None of the books you selected have anything at all to do with survival or how to live on a desert island, because you felt certain that your bathtub would work, leaving you with four books which can be used merely for entertainment.
Without further ado, here are four suggestions.

Hamlet – The amount of time you will have to spend on the desert island is considerable and therefore it is fitting to select not only one of the best Shakespeare plays, but also the longest. This tale of betrayal and revenge is guaranteed to take hours to read (a benefit in this scenario) and your solitude on the island will allow you to practise many of the most famous speeches ever written. Then, having perfected ‘to be or not to be’ in such a way as to put Benedict Cumberbatch to shame, Hamlet also has a very practical use, kindling. Starting fires without the correct kindling can be very tricky and so, once you know the tale of the Danish prince off by heart, you can use it to send up a smoke signal to passing ships. Therefore, Hamlet is an excellent choice, not only for its fire-making qualities, but also for its use as a genuinely gripping piece of drama.


Alice in Wonderland – Long periods of time spent alone have been known to cause even the toughest of explorers to go mad. With little more than a coconut to talk to and a lack of correct nutrition, hallucination is very possible. Written by Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland takes an extraordinary journey through a magical world, encountering characters such as a Dodo, Bill the Lizard and of course the Queen of Hearts. This frantic tale is the perfect medicine for any hallucinations you may suffer during your stay. This is because, reading this book, any hallucinations you may have can simply be built into the story and therefore appear totally normal. However, to achieve these hallucinations and therefore an enhanced experience, I would recommend reading it after several months on the island.


Finnegans Wake – Perhaps a strange choice given it has divided critics and scholars over the meaning of the book and even whether any of it makes any sense at all, several critics branding it ‘nonsense’.

However, it has one key quality which makes it an excellent choice to take to a desert island. The book, quite simply, never ends. Without ruining the story, the final line of the book is as follows:
‘A way a lone a last a loved a long the’
If you then turn to the first page, the opening line is:
‘riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs’
The book is therefore ideal as, with almost all other books in the world, there is a definitive end: not with this one, meaning you can read it over and over again. Indeed, you’ll probably need to read it multiple times to try and understand even the smallest segment, but time really is no issue on the island.

Decline and Fall – The sorry, yet highly amusing, tale of Paul Pennyfeather’s struggle through life, from being sent down, to being sent to prison for traffic in prostitution, is the final choice for this peculiar quartet of books. Being marooned alone, without rations or adequate shelter, could make you feel a little hard done by and you would be justified - coconut can only be cooked so many ways. Therefore, Decline and Fall is vital for keeping things in perspective and remembering that no matter how many of your toes you have to eat in order to stay alive, things could always be worse. In your own miserable situation, schadenfreude, laughing at another person’s misfortune, is very important.

If you found this list helpful, then please write to me at ‘An Island in the middle of a huge expanse of water, send help please, please, for goodness sake send help, I had to eat the bathtub’ or, if you disagree, why not put forward a couple of your own favorite books to read in a life-threatening situation?