Five Books to Read on a Desert Island

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Tampa Bay Times, 63 Books

We asked several notable people to tell us which are their five favorite books -- the books they'd choose if they were, say, stranded on a desert island.

Most of the people asked were authors themselves, but responders also included government officials, librarians, a theater manager, a reverend, and a spelling bee champion.

It seems like they asked 14 people

This list was originally published in 1983 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
19 The Bible Unknown -1400 Jewish Hebrew, aramaic, greek
906 Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington 1901 American English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
2671 Webster's Dictionary Noah Webster 1828 American English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
246 The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy 1906 British English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
90 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 German German
689 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
4635 The Medici George Frederick Young 1910 Unknown English
3114 The Life of Andrew Jackson Marquis James 1937 American English
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
708 Captain Hornblower R.N. C. S. Forester 1937 British English
5307 Lee's Lieutenants Douglas Southall Freeman 1943 American English
2413 The Americanization of Edward Bok Edward Bok 1920 American English
4635 Success Napoleon Hill 1928 American Unknown
4976 A Fortune To Share Vash Young 1938 American English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
83 Emma Jane Austen 1815 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
6554 The Bottom Of The Harbor Joseph Mitchell 1959 American English
435 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 1938 British English
6186 The Tunnel Of Love Peter De Vries 1954 American English
6316 Comfort Me With Apples Peter De Vries 1956 American English
6979 Reuben, Reuben Peter De Vries 1964 American English
5390 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
8785 The Greening Of The Church Findley Edge 1976 American English
8574 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
3250 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
6186 The Second Tree From The Corner E. B. White 1954 American English
9882 Basin And Range John McPhee 1981 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
3134 Intruder in the Dust William Faulkner 1948 American English
6635 Theatre, The Rediscovery Of Style Michel Saint-Denis 1960 French English
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
5735 Anne Of The Thousand Days Maxwell Anderson 1950 American English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
3149 All the President's Men Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein 1974 American English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
3311 Cross Creek Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1942 American English
5495 All Creatures Great And Small James Herriot 1972 British English
462 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 Lebanese English
2464 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
10372 Complete Poems James Weldon Johnson 2000 American English
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
293 A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle 1962 American English