Desert Island Books - a Personal Choice

I was recently challenged to pick ten of my favourite books via Facebook. As always, this seemed a good opportunity to do a blog, and I've decided to pick five fiction and five non-fiction tomes for my selection. These are in no particular order. Here goes...

1) 1984 – George Orwell (1949) – I originally read this for my GCSE English course at school. The ideas of the book have permeated into society so much that we don't even notice them, such as Big Brother representing the surveillance state and Room 101 being somewhere tortuous. These two phrases have even given their names to television programmes, of which I infinitely prefer the latter. As we sign up for million-page user agreements that nobody reads, granting technology companies access to literally everything, the book serves as a timely reminder that the route we are on may not be the wisest. Often perceived as being purely about communism, the author intended to satirise any totalitarian state, and this could equally mean complete control by the money men. A scary book for teenagers at least.

2) Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (1932) – This dystopian novel was written fifteen years before Orwell's vision. Here, society is divided into groups based on intelligence, and intelligence is governed at birth by the deliberate provision or starvation of oxygen. I've no idea if this is scientifically possible, but the main point is that an ignorant savage is perhaps more free than intelligent people living in such a controlled society. More warnings for our technology obsessed era, and the book seems to prompt the question: just because somebody has the luck to be more intelligent, does that give them the right to a better life?

3) Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell (1936) – Some of the notions in this book may make us shudder these days, but I guess the author was trying to show that the ideology of the American Civil War wasn't as clear cut as we find comfortable to believe. The book is divided into two halves and after the first half one presumes that most of the action is over, but this is not the case. All in all, we have a stinging morality tale where the narcissistic central character, Scarlett O'Hara, gets her just desserts. Frankly my dear...

4) The Shining – Stephen King (1977) – Having loved Stanley Kubrick's film for many years I didn't imagine that the book could be even better, although I knew that it was certainly different. Here we get glimpses into Jack Torrance's past, providing clues about the real-life demons that gradually turn him into the familiar psychopath from the film. The book also focuses a lot more on his son's supernatural 'gift.'

5) The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde (1890) – Coming up with a fifth fiction choice was tricky as there are just so many options, but this was one of the first 'classics' I read. The book opens with a collection of witticisms about art (which is always a good start) before plunging into the story where a man's debauched life merely ages a portrait of himself rather than his physical body. Deemed shocking in its time, the only part that drags is the chapter where the author seems to relentlessly list the physical aspects of various expensive items, but I guess that's creativity for you.

6) Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson (1995) – This book has to be included as it inspired me to start writing myself. Other amusing UK travel books had been written before, such as Tom Vernon's 'Fat Man on a Roman Road,' but this one seemed to jack up the humour giving a more diary-like feel to things, with a tone of indignation ('Where the **** is my sustenance?') mingling with the factual discoveries. Sadly my own attempts at the genre were completely blanked by the literary world and those dreadful bookshops beginning with 'W,' and I will forever cower in the shadows of this leviathan.

7) Revolution in the Head – Ian Macdonald (1994) – A must read tome for Beatles fans, although I often disagree with the author's views, for example he is quite disparaging of the White Album (my favourite). Nevertheless, his thoughts on the individual Beatles' outlooks as expressed through the lyrics, production and chord structures that he analyses is second to none. The writing is almost as prosaic as the songs at times and some of his phrases make me laugh out loud, such as describing Maxwell's Silver Hammer as 'sniggering nonsense' for example. Sadly the author committed suicide, and the generally dour prologue about soulless modern music in a vacuous era is perhaps a clue.

8) Journey into the Whirlwind – Eugenia Ginzburg (1967) – Translated from the original Russian edition, this is a harrowing account of a communism supporting journalist who fell foul of Stalin's brutal paranoia. I literally couldn't put this book down as I followed Eugenia from a comfortable life into the jaws of hell, torn from her family, plunged into prison and then exiled to a remote labour camp where death is pretty much guaranteed. Like 1984, another shocking lesson from history, except this one is for real.

9) A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking (1988) – I could include several more mind-blowing books from the popular science genre such as The Never Ending Days of Being Dead by Marcus Chown, but this is the one that really brought astrophysics to the masses in a palatable way, touching on human concerns such as our place in the universe, freedom of choice and the familiar question of 'why are we here?' The opening section on the fundamentals of astronomy is pretty easy going, but keep pressing on to the particle physics and you'll realise that the universe is far more bizarre than you ever imagined. Also worth trying is The Last Three Minutes by Paul Davies.

10) Status Anxiety – Alain de Botton (2004) – We finish with the most modern book on this list. We live in a world that seems hell-bent on making us feel bad about ourselves and the fight-back starts here. There is nothing particularly revelatory, but this book certainly reminds us that there are many other ways of looking at things. He looks at the issue through everything from religion to art and creativity, and if none of that works, the fact that we are all going to end up six feet under might be the reality injection of choice. If you enjoy this, 'Happiness' by Richard Layard and 'Happy' by Derren Brown both seem to sing from a similar hymn sheet; the first looks at economics while the second focuses on psychology.

Well, that's ten for you. Don't forget new unknown authors too. If you fancy a collection of hopefully mind-blowing short stories that pre-dated TV's Black Mirror anthology, try a download of Adam Colton's 'Conundrum' stories (published as two paperbacks in 2009 and 2011), or if you fancy some humorous UK travel, Stair-Rods & Stars / Mud Sweat & Beers will appeal to walkers, cyclists and campers, while England and Wales in a Flash / Bordering on Lunacy will appeal to lovers of the coast. Physical copies are available on Amazon, but sadly you won't find them on the shelves of the High Street bookshops, although they can order them for you. If they say they can't, hit them over the head with an ISBN catalogue! Unlike the Murphy's...