Desert island books

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I just moved to America (okay, it's not quite a desert island) and had to make agonising choices about which books to bring.  Specifically about which AF books to bring.  My final list was: The Cricket Term, The Attic Term, Falconer's Lure, Run Away Home and Players Boy.  The last one made it because it's new and I've only read it a couple of times.  I'm starting to wonder if I'll miss End of Term when it gets nearer Christmas.  But the others are just books I can't live without.

So which would make it onto your list?

Comments

[elizahonig.livejournal.com]

So unable am I to be without my Antonias that I actually have two sets of AF books, one (incomplete) in Amsterdam and one (complete) in America--but the incomplete one is mainly that way because I couldn't manage to acquire a second complete set. There wasn't much choice involved.

If I did get to choose, the one I'd need the most would be *End of Term*--the first one I read and still my favorite. Then *Autumn Term.* Other early ones, like Falconer's Lure and even The Marlows and the Traitor, would come next. And I really like *Ready-Made Family.*

By the later school books, Attic Term especially, too many of my favorite characters are gone. No book without Lois, Rowan, and Jan can be totally perfect. So I'll leave Attic out, and possibly Cricket as well. Peter's Room has some great moments but I don't care for the Gondalling, I tend to skip those bits. Thuggery Affair--a curiosity, not a great book. The historicals--could lose them. Thursday Kidnapping--a decent story but nothing on the Marlows, not worth luggage space. This leaves Runaway Home. I read that late and somehow it didn't make a big impact on me. I think I need to reread it--so I'll take it to my desert island.