The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-29
THE TEN BEST BOOKS TO
READ ON A DESERT ISLE

number of interesting letters have
Post, which recently asked its READERS to
name the ten books which they would
choose to take with them in case they
were to be banished to desert island for
five years la Robinson Crusoe Among
the twenty replies printed by The Post
are letters from Mr.. John Vance Cheney
librarian of the Newberry Library; Mr..
Roswell Field, the satirist; Mr.. John
Nowlin Crawford, the essayist; Mr.. Hen
ny b. Fuller, author of THE Chevalier
of Pensieri Nani;' and Mr.. S. L. Kiser,
the poet and humorist. In nearly every
list the Bible and Shakespeare are found.
although one journal hints that these two,
especially the first, were sometimes in
st rted for the sake of effect. The stand
ard Dictionary, Webster's International
and the Century Dictionary figure in
many of the lists, although the latter was
ruled out on the ground that it comprises
in itself ten volumes. Mr.. Cheney's list
is as follows
!. Bible.
:. Shakespeare.
3. Milton
4. Blackstone's Commentaries.
.. Hugo Cor Carlyle.
6. Emerson
| {. Wordsworth.
! Tennyson.
| .. Century Dictionary.
| 10. Don Quixote.
| Mr.. Field writes: Judging from the
! chronicles of our common distinguished
friend, the late Robinson Crusoe, if / were
banished for five years to a desert island
| j should hardly find time to read even
ten books. 1t seems to me l should be
8 iaH in, ht1C ,t1A 60
anc shelter, investigating alarming foot
prints, and composing my soul in practi-
cal ways. But, assuming the island to be,
say, Devils Island with moments for lit
terary recreation, / fancy / should make
isuch selection of books as would COM
bine instruction with pleasure, literary d.
version with useful knowledge. Dr.
Holmes once said that if he were shut
up In prison, with access to no other
ibcok, he might be induced to read a trea-
tise on mathematics; so / venture to as
sert that this desert-island experience
might encourage me to finish Gibbons
l'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Ian achievement of no small measure
However, l am still suspicious of my
strength, and shall therefore not include
IGlbbon. Remembering that the five years
would be a period. of se1f-instruction and
Protection. a good Christian and moralist
would naturally declare first for the Bible
land the works of Shakespeare. That
would be literary meat enough for even
tine most exacting recluse, yet as there
are eight other books permitted to pass
1.-THE custom house 1 may as well have the
worth of my money. OF course I should
take Robinson Crusoe,' an invaluable
lguide to comfort on desert islands; for
seeing how Robinson conducted himself
Iunoer similar conditions, could profit by
ibis experience and counsel And I should
provide myself with other useful books
lbcoks that possibly 1 have sighted in my
Unconditional and uneventful past, but Of
the most vital Importance to me in my
Icaracity of envoy extraordinary to the
desert isle. And so without further apol
Iogy or explanations:
| l. Bible, with Apocrypha.
| =. Shakespeare.
3. Odyssey, Worsleys Translation
4. Carlyle's French Revolution.
5. Robinson Crusoe.