The Desert Island Question

You know the one: If you were on a desert island, and had your choice of only one book to have with you, which one would you choose?

First of all, I find this question monsterously unfair to the true bibliophile. ONE book? ONLY one? Give me a choice of TEN rather. Maybe... MAYBE I can wittle it down to five. But ONE? I can no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens.

Even Ray Bradbury, when presented with the question, chose three: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the collected plays of Bernard Shaw, and anything by anthropologist Loren Eiseley.

As for myself, I would have to choose the collected works of Shakespeare, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and, of course, the collected shorts of Ray Bradbury.

And then, the more I start thinking about it, well, there's some underrepresentation here. What about the graphic novel? I need to throw in some Neil Gaiman, or The Dark Knight, or TMNT. What about children's stories? One of the Andrew Lang Fairy Books or something by Michael Ende. What about art? Certainly I can't be stuck on a desert island without some Michael Whelan or Patrick Woodroffe! What about my all time favorite King Arthur story: Firelord by Parke Godwin? And, Oh, Geez... I completely forgot about poetry...

Nevertheless, the point is moot, because any one of these tomes strapped to my back during a shipwreck--let alone five or ten of them--would plummet me straight to the bottom of the sea.

[p.s. Lost, Season One: If you look closely, Sawyer is reading a battered copy of Richard Adams' Watership Down, another fine choice...]