I’d bring Ramon Saizarbitoria’s Martutene, Vargas Llosa’s The War of the End of the World, and Miau by Benito Pérez Galdós. I could spend years rereading them. Plus, they are long. I wish the question included a fourth book so I could add Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.
When people say “the Bible” in response to this kind of question, I feel like they are virtue signaling.
It’s worse when they say War and Peace. Are you really going to read that crap? How many times?
Clarissa's Blog 
I think I would bring the Bible, not because I’m exceptionally virtuous but because it is long
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Not necessarily. A LOT of people don’t do much/actually any book-level reading, so when asked to name books, titles don’t immediately come to mind.
Everybody is familiar with the Bible, so they simply say that first.
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I don’t think it’s that. It’s because any story, I get tired of after a while. You don’t read the Bible in the same way– you meditate on it. If you’re going to be spending an indefinite time in solitude, that seems the most useful. YMMV.
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See, this is why at least 1 of my 3 books is an anthology of poetry
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I can’t help homing in on the “desert island” part of that question because I’m a pedant, which means that of course I’d want Primitive Technology by David Wescott, a decent guide to the island’s flora and fauna, and a robust copy of the Psalms (I’d go for the whole OSB, but the pages are so thin! If you stick with just the Psalms, you can probably get one printed on heavier paper…).
Unless this desert island has a well-appointed house and regular grocery deliveries?
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I’ve read at least ten chapters of the Bible pretty much every single day for the past several decades. Even when life gets out of control and I have to abbreviate my reading time, I still cram in as much as I possibly can. I don’t say that to virtue signal or sound sanctimonious. It’s simply the habit in my life that I cultivated on purpose and get the most benefit out of. I would absolutely take my Bible. It’s one of the very few things I can read over and over and always get more out of each time.
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You can really tell that most people here are academics of some kind, because no one said that they only need one book, perhaps called “How To Get Off Desert Islands Guaranteed” or something.
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|-D
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You can look up survival tips on YouTube, so who needs a book? 🙂
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Wait, this island has internet?
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“this island has internet?”
That is a game changer, for sure. If it also has pizza delivery… then I’m not in such a hurry to be “rescued”….
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