Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which ONE book could you not live without?

Ah, the classic question!  Two answers come immediately to mind.  The practical: a book about survival on a desert island, obviously, with detailed instructions on how to make fire.  And the emotional: the Bible, for the inspiration of most passages, its sheer length and re-readability, and all those good stories in there too.

Two true answers, and both kind of cliches, I’m afraid.  So setting those two possibilities aside, I tried to think of #3.  And it’s very hard!  If I could bring one set of books, I’d bring the six volumes of L. M. Montgomery’s journal.  Not the spiritual inspiration of the Bible, but comforting, long, re-readable and very good for reading in brief snatches at the end of a hard day of island survival.

If I was forced to bring just one…  Walden would be a contender, because when Thoreau is good, he’s very good (though when he’s dull, he’s very dull) and it seems in the right spirit for seeking the silver lining in the situation.  Or possibly The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, about a girl who survived being stranded in Antarctica, mostly by the power of her mind alone.  Not exactly the same as seeking a silver lining, but inspiring in a different way.

And if the question is really just asking what book I can’t live without, apart from the desert island scenario?  Still the Bible, to be honest, which I’ve been reading daily for…hmm, 13 years now.  And…I can’t pick another.  I have many, many beloved favorites, and to choose just one feels impossible.  Partially because, how could I discard the rest?  But also because all my favorites live in my head in some shape or another, and they would even if I didn’t have copies of them on hand.  Though I certainly wouldn’t like to give up my book collection anyway!!

What book would you want on a desert island?  And is it the same as the one book you’d want in your life?