Reading in Reykjavík

In 2008 and again in 2011 I posted my choices for Desert Island Books, i.e. books I would take with me for a year’s stay alone on a desert island. Since three years went by between these two posts and another three years have gone by since the second one, I thought it was time to do a third such list. To recap the rules: There can be more than one book in a volume, but I can only choose 10 volumes plus a book of national importance to my culture and one religious book. My previous choices in these categories were the Icelandic Sagas and the Mahabaratha in 2008, and in 2011 I again chose the Sagas and the religious book was the Koran . My culturally important book for 2014 is yet again the Sagas (I have read one of them since last time), and the religious book would not be a book of religion (like the Bible or the Koran ) but one about religion or the lack thereof - title not decided yet but God: A Biography by Jack Miles comes to mind. As in 2011, I did not look at the pre...

Back in 2008 I posted a list of my Desert Island Books , and now I think it’s time to do another one. Just to make sure I do this right, I didn’t look at the old list before drawing up this version. Rules: There can be more than one book in a volume, but I can only choose10 volumes plus a book of national importance to my culture and one religious book. Since there is no electricity on my fictional desert island and I can only take a limited number of batteries with me – all of which I will need to power my flashlight and an emergency radio – I can not take an e-book reader. My culturally important book is the Icelandic Sagas and the religious book is the Koran. If only allowed to take 10 volumes (plus the above two) I would choose: The collected works of William Shakespeare, because I want to finish reading the plays and, frankly, I need seclusion in order to concentrate on the historical plays. Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Mallory. I love Arthurian legends and have on...