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ONE book to a desert island?

 

 

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Wordbird

  Wordbird

Thu, Mar 27 12:40 PM

ONE book to a desert island?

 

For a month now I've been working to get books donated to a prison where a peaceful protester has been sentenced. Coordinating the donation of books to the prison has turned out to be both frustrating and funny. Meanwhile someone in OHIO heard about my efforts and donated a bunch of books to a prison there. So talk about unexpected ripples?? How great is that.

 

Still, "my" prison has yet to receive books.

 

So I need to mail a brand new book to him personally. That way at least ONE book gets to him, right now. asap. Imagine a professor, a good mind like that, stuck in a cell for almost two months, with nothing to read.

 

But WHICH book? He can't make phone calls and he's written to me once but writing back and forth takes two weeks. He is a family friend but I don't him that well I could choose the ONE book he'd be delighted to see.

 

So I got to thinking about books. What they do for us. Why they are so important. What KINDS of books one would choose, if one were stranded on a desert island with only a single book for company and distraction and comfort.

 

What book would you choose to send to a stranded friend on a desert island? We can't do religious since for many the Bible or equally divine and important books would be obvious. We can't do non-fiction. The desert island has rules we have to abide by strictly.  Nothing gory or violent of course so our favorite serial killer and mystery and science fiction is out. Besides our friend doesn't read that stuff. He's a very gentle man.

 

I write to him almost every day. I want something bright or fun or loving to come into the cell, every day, for a moment. It's hard not to despair, when a good person defending the earth and the environmental safety of people, completely peacefully, goes to high security prison for six months. That's...not what we want to believe any of the free countries in the world would do. The injustice of it is rippling throughout the world--there was an article in the German paper (thank you Germany)  and although this happened in CN, it's (big shock) a US owned company that's being protested. But let's not dwell on that. Here in TOOLS we think about what uplifts and inspires people, what informs and strengthens and comforts us?

 

Book. A single book. It might be the only one your friend on the island gets. What would it be?

 

(Here's my dad, years ago, reading us The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We always read to each other at Christmas. That's a book I treasure.)

# Comment (3) # View (1058) # Show support

# Tags: Bob Lovelace, mining protest, books, comfort, inspiration, friend, peace, protests, reading, donations

 

This post is cheered by:

Bda Bda


 

comments

Dabble Dabble:

Books

Sharon Butala's "The Perfection of the Morning" is all about a woman oddly imprisoned on the open prairie.  Her explorations of herself and the world around her, its natural beauty, might appeal to your friend.

Or "Three Days Road" by Joseph Boyden, about the aboriginal snipers in WW1 and the families they left behind.

Or Nelson Mandela's autobiography...

Or something silly, like anything by Terry Pratchett 

Or perhaps a legal farce like Rumpole of the Bailey

Or one of Stuart MacLean's compilations, especially the one that includes the story of toilet training the cat.....

There are so many that might help bring joy. 

Thinking of you.   

You're not alone You're not alone

manderwrites manderwrites:

BOOKS

Kafka on the Shore or The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Hiroki Murikami

(wonderful Japanese writer you probably know of him - if you have not read his work, you definitely should give it a try - but be forewarned he is a love/hate kind of writer - Some love him and Some hate him; I have never gotten a tepid review)

 

Godel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid - Douglas Hofstadter  (Older but super amazing and interesting and well with all that time, you may as well get smarter about hard things!)

 

Water for Elephants: Sarah Gruen  - this was probably one of my favorite recent reads. Along with

 

the Time Traveler's Wife

 

and Eat Pray Love

(this one is definitely more girly)

 

and A Thousand Splended Suns

 

and Poetry by Mary Oliver and Billy Collins and Robert Frost and Maya Angelou

 

Okay Okay, you found my weak spot - I could NEVER pick just one.... 

 

OH, a Really cool book I am almost done with right now is by Barack Obama - Dreams from My Father.  It is about his life and incredibly diverse family life and history - very well written, very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

Bda Bda:

My personal favorite and on my coffee table

"The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker".

 

It has decades of cartoons - filled with irony and witt.  Serious topics handled with ease - much to reflect on over the years....but not too heavy.  Short excerpts that can be put down and picked up easily.

 

Good for you to sticking with this man - I am still amazed he is in there and hasn't been released.

 

Also - anything by Barbara Kingsolver.  She has an incredble ability to provide detail - takes forever to read a paragraph because of the lush descriptions.  "Poisonwood Bible" is my favorite from her.......That would keep him really occupied and transported to the Congo with a missionary family in the 1950's.  I feel like I've already been to the Congo and know each character very well.