My Top Ten Desert Island Lists

There is good reason to take a break from writing the heavier stuff I have been unable to avoid during this crisis. Instead, on a Saturday, I am writing down what I would want were I stranded on a desert island for an indefinite period.

Albums

These albums are in no particular order. Very hard to pare down to ten.

1. Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder
2. Back in Black by AC/DC
3. Rocks by Aerosmith
4. Screaming for Vengeance by Judas Priest
5. It’s Not Big, It’s Large by Lyle Lovett
6. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
7. Southern Harmony and Musical Companion by The Black Crows
8. Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones
9. Hotel California by Eagles
10. Gretchen Goes to Nebraska by Kings X

Books

Not a particular order, but I would want large, important books.

1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
4. Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
5. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens
6. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
7. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
8. The Complete Essays of Montaigne by by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
9. Patton: A Genius for War by Carlos D’Este
10. The War of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Television Series

I watch an hour of television of week, and lately, even less than that. But, assuming my desert island had a television, I could live with nine.

1. The Sopranos (Seasons One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six)
2. Deadwood (Seasons One, Two, and Three)

Movies

These are in order of importance.

1. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
2. The Godfather, Part One (Francis Ford Coppola)
3. The Godfather, Part Two (Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
5. Casino (Martin Scorsese)
6. The Blues Brothers (For the comedy of Belushi and Ackroyd, and the music)
7. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
8. Papillon (The 1973 Original with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman)
9. Willie Wonka (for Gene Wilder’s performance alone)
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)

What would more important to me than all of these things would be unlimited paper and something with which to write.