Hello and welcome back to Desert Island Books on the blog. I am thrilled to have G. G. Kellner joining us this month.
You may remember that I reviewed Gayle's book, Hope: A History of the Future, a couple of weeks ago. If you would like to read my review you can do so by clicking here. You can also find some interesting information all about Gayle herself.
The newly released book Hope, A History of the Future imagines a peaceful, just, verdant future world that could arise. It is a novel based on scientific projections and historical precedence.
Gayle, how do you think you would manage life on a desert island?
It’s not often that being a nerdy introvert is handy, but I think I’d love being on a desert island with eight of my favourite books! I actually live on an island in real life and love it. Of course, I’m not here entirely alone. This is a fun question for me too because some of the characters in my book Hope, A History of the Future get stranded on a deserted island!
If the imaginary island had a good swimming hole, a hammock in the shade, and a few fruit trees I’d settle in happily with my books for quite a while. My nerdy side is about to be exposed.
At 1260 pages with five dozen maps History of the World is large enough to double as a pup-tent. I am currently rereading this for the second time (it took me a year and half the first time.) It is a fascinating account of what we know of the beginnings of humankind from prehistory 600,000 years ago to the present. It is organised in such a way that the reader is taken on a spiralling path around and around the world stopping at each continent and civilisation as the authors wind up and around the globe chronologically moving forward in time. The first-time I read this book it knit together history for me like a patchwork quilt. I began to comprehend how historical events and civilisations are deeply intertwined. At four inches thick it will also make a good weapon or a decent pillow.
First you must know, I have trouble with insomnia sometimes. I love reading old encyclopedias just before bed or if I wake in the night. The internet has pretty well made encyclopedias obsolete but there is no better way for me to pass an hour or two than filling my head with nearly useless and certainly out of date information like the population of Nebraska in 1950 (1,327,000; I wouldn’t have guessed that high). Or I can wonder around the topography of Italy, climbing the hills of Tuscany in my mind. I especially like the set of encyclopedias I inherited from my grandmother. I can find out the major exports of long forgotten countries and the names of little remembered now dead presidents. Nothing seems quite as serious through the filter of time. And when I’m done reading them all I can make them into the deck of a raft.
Yeah, a big one. One that can double as a footstool. My current toe stubber is The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language third edition by Houghton Mifflin. I really like it because it has little pictures. Like the one I’m looking at right now of two flamenco dancers intertwined mid-step. On the opposite page is a long-legged flamingo bird (before I looked, I thought these were the same words!) When I’m not learning new words, I can stand on top of it and look far out to sea or reach that perfectly ripe avocado. If a fellow castaway was to wash up, we would be able to play Scrabble with a reliable word referee.
I was over 50 years old when I learned that I loved math. I like it so much, if I live long enough, I may be tempted to get a degree in mathematics someday. So, if I was stuck on a desert island I’d wake up and read this book in the morning right after a refreshing swim. The inner workings and mysteries of math and the world around us is so much more interesting than most teachers in school ever let you know.
Books five and six would have to be a copy of my own book Hope, A History of the Future and a blank book. I could probably spend years reworking parts that I currently think could be better and if nothing else it would make a good fire starter. In the blank book, I could write the sequel to Hope, A History of the Future. I’d have to choose my words carefully. With no word processors, I’d likely be writing it with a homemade charcoal pencil like the character Mia in my story.
I haven’t read this in years, but it is on the top of my “read again” list. I remember being mesmerised by his descriptions of nature and the small things which I’m guessing by month four or five on a desert island would begin to take on a whole new significance.
I could easily just bring poetry books and forget everything else! So, for my last selection I would have to bring a book from one of my favourite poets Mary Oliver. I think I’d bring Thirst. It seems a fitting title for a companion book on a desert island. How many things one can thirst for besides water? Quite a few I bet! In this book is one of my all-time favourite poems, The Uses of Sorrow, which I included (with special permission from Mary Oliver’s estate) in Hope, A History of the Future. It is very short. Like a kaon, it could be something to think about whilst sitting in the sand day after day,
“A friend once gave me a box full of darkness
It took me years to understand
that this too was a gift” -Mary Oliver
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Now that I've made this list I don’t think one lifetime is enough for me on a desert island! I’m going to go find my swimming suit and start building a raft.
I love the way that many of your choices have a practical element too. Thank you, Gayle, for sharing your choices.
If you are an author and would be interested in taking part, then please get in touch by emailing me at leftontheshelf1@gmail.com.
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