Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

I leave this Saturday for a week on an island out in Penobscot Bay. This island has no tv, radio, or computer access. It does have some solar electricity, some hot water, one satellite phone for emergencies only, and one vehicle (that isn't a boat, I should say). It's a tractor. I'll be spending the week in a large house with a small group of people, only one of whom I know, and we'll be doing yoga and meditating part of the time. The rest of the time is for hiking, sketching, writing, sunbathing, swimming, and generally being alone outside. My particular idea of heaven. And did I mention the person in charge of this retreat has hired a chef and a sous chef and will be feeding us three lovely meals a day? More heaven. All I have to bring is clothing, sketching materials (watercolors, paper, etc.), hiking boots, sweaters for cool nights, a flashlight, my camera, a bathing suit, perhaps a book or two. Or three. But really, this island is overwhelmingly lovely and wild, and books become secondary to simply looking around. This from a true book lover! As Alain de Botton says:

“Even the finest books deserve to be thrown aside.”

(How Proust Can Change Your Life p.197)

Throw them aside - in favor of real life, that is. Not that reading isn't real life, perhaps I should say exterior life instead. I was lucky enough to visit this island twice last year, and am positively gleeful to be returning again, I've been looking forward to this for months. Meantime, I am wondering what to do to keep blog-readers happy while I'm away. So I thought I'd post a few lists over the next few days of some of my very favorite books in different genres, and while I'm gone I hope people will send in their additions to these lists. Take your time, think about your additions for a while, add something then come back and add a few more - I'm looking for the books you are truly crazy about, from any era or author, the ones that bring you the most joy, thoughtfulness, love, despair, comfort, the ones you read once that changed your life somehow, and the ones you re-read every year. Surprise me, and give us all some great books to add to our want lists. I know I talk about my favorite books all the time, but there's room in this big world for many many more. I'll post the first list later today. I'm still trying to decide what today's genre will be.