Deserted island

Sometimes, when I’m sick and tired with my work, I picture myself on a deserted island. Palm trees, white sand, blue water, no sharks and room service. All the time in the world. My kind of unrealistic fantasy. There is just one catch. I can only bring a limited amount of luggage. It’s limited – book wise – to one meter of books. One meter. That’s not much. That’s not much at all. And no, I haven’t made my definite list yet. Limiting my books to one meter is very difficult. Who should I put on the list.

For starters, Tolkien is definitely on the list with “The Lord of the Rings’. It remains one of my favorite books all time. I’ve reread it several times. Although I still have minor problems with “The fellowship of the ring” – of all three books this is the one which takes me the most time to read – the story remains magical.

Okay, so I have Tolkien on my list. Who else. I also love Tad Williams and Robin Hobb. Only problem is that their series contain several books, and therefore use too much space.  From Tad I like above all his series “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn”. A long time ago I found the third book in hard back in Amsterdam and I was ecstatic about it – my friends considered me nuts. It contains everything: tragedy, heroism, strange customs and a devious villain. 

Then Robin Hobb. I met her in a bookstore – also in Amsterdam – many years ago and was struck by her sobriety. She was even surprised so many people showed up to meet her. She signed one of my books and I went home a very happy girl. From her I like both series about Fitz, “The Farseer triology” and “The Tawny Man” and the two books about the dragons – “Dragon haven” and “Dragon keeper”. I absolutely disliked the “Soldier Son trilogy.” Too much politics and Wild West for me. I stick to the Six Duchies, Bingtown and Rain Wilds.

Is it a coincidence that all three - Tolkien, Hobb and Williams – have amazing covers? The art on a cover is important to me. I do my best not to judge a book by his cover. But at least in the case of Hobb, I picked up one of her books – “Assassin’s apprentice” – because of the cover art by John Howe.

The books by Robin Hobb unfortunately swallow a lot of space. Actually, I think with these three authors my meter is so good as filled. Although I do love these books, I would like to have a little bit more to read. The problem is, what else? That is a problem I haven’t figured out yet. At the moment I read a lot of different authors from C.J. Sansom or Michael Jecks (medieval based stories) to James Rollins or Steve Perry (Indiana Jones meets Da Vinci code). Most of these authors write in series. Just taking one book somehow doesn’t seem right. But I think I have a solution (or two): I can always change books for new books if I bent the rules a little bit. After all room service needs supplying… And if that doesn’t work, I just take an e-reader. I’m just not sure whether an electronic device and a beach are a good combination? And there is the plug issue. Mm, I’m not sure. I think I just have to keep on dreaming.