What 5 books would I take with me to a desert island?

Q: You’re packing your bag for a trip to a desert island–the kind with no electricity–what 5 books do you take with you?

A: It would kind of depend on how long I was expecting to be on this island. Since I have the luxury of planning ahead and packing for it in advance, I imagine it will be for a bit of an extended stay. In that case, something with lots of pages and a lot of information sounds like the best choice to me.

1. The Bible; it has many stories and much to ponder.
2. A large English dictionary; I might not be speaking with anyone, but there’s always new things to discover in a dictionary. I don’t know if I would choose The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
   or The New Oxford American Dictionary, because I own older versions of both, and they are both good dictionaries. The American Heritage one includes a nice sounding CD-ROM, but that wouldn’t be much help on a desert island without electricity. 🙂
3. A large foreign language dictionary (especially if the natives speak something other than English); this sounds like a good time to learn a new skill!
4. A 1,000 sudoku puzzlesbook (or more if I could find one), or maybe crossword puzzles since I would have a dictionary. Of course, I’d also have to pack a lot of pencils and erasers.
5. The complete works of William Shakespeare—or Harry Potter—or James Rollins; Shakespeare would provide more reading material, but Harry Potter and James Rollins would be more enjoyable

Now, if it was going to be a short-term trip, like during a vacation, I’d pick some more involving books from my shelf that I haven’t had a chance to read yet:

1. The Judas Strain by James Rollins, a SIGMA Force novel I haven’t read.
2. The Last Oracle by James Rollins, another SIGMA Force novel I haven’t .
3. The Doomsday Key by James Rollins, another SIGMA Force novel.
4. Seven Sisters by Earlene Fowler, a Benni Harper Mystery.
5. Murder, She Meowed by Rita Mae Brown, part of the Mrs. Murphy Mysteries series.

Question inspired from LiveJournal Writer’s Block.
“Treasure Island / The Island / L’île Perdu Version II” photo by Aaron Escobar™, used under CC-BY-2.0 license.