Wyrd & Wonder: Desert Island Reads

IMAGE CREDIT: pegasus image by Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com

This challenge was put together by imyril @ There’s Always Room For One More and inspired by a BBC radio show, which I haven’t actually ever listened to, but I still love the concept! You can see her post about it here, but essentially these are the rules:

• Eight books/audiobooks, and each book in a series counts as one of your eight unless there is a collected edition, and you can’t have a fully loaded kindle/e-reader
• One podcast/TV show/film – for podcasts and TV you can have the whole show, and if you choose a film franchise you can have all the films.
• One other thing you can’t live without, as long as it’s inanimate

And because it’s Wyrd & Wonder, everything will be fantasy themed!

My books of choice

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – I feel like most fantasy readers will have this one as an option, and this book is one I have read quite a few times over the years, and I always find something new among its pages, so I’d love the time to sit and read it again, as it’s been a while now.
2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – another big volume, this one a lot more recent than Tolkien’s work, but just as close to my heart. I’ve only read this once so far but it’s the kind of story that I feel I’ve always known now that I’ve read it, and I’ve been wanting to pick it up again – I was going to reread it for Wyrd & Wonder but I realised that with all my ARCs and other new purchases I’d have to rush through it, and I feel like Shannon’s tome deserves time.
3. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern – this is just such a beautiful, magical, comforting book that I could read it over and over. It definitely needs to come with me!
4. For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten – okay, maybe it’s because I just finished reading this at the time of writing up this post, but the longing of it won’t let me go, so I think I’d like to have it with me for the days on which I just want to feel a lot of emotions.
5. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – another childhood comfort read, and this one has been published in a single volume before so it will only take up one of my slots!
6. Merlin by Stephen R. Lawhead – the second book in his Pendragon cycle, and probably my favourite. I love most of the series, but not enough to have it take up most of my slots, so this one is the one I’d choose.
7. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – for when I need to laugh, and -since I’ll be by myself on an abandoned island- I can strut about and read the book out loud while putting on fun voices.
8. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn – I absolutely love this book but the first time I read it, I definitely rushed through it too quickly, so I’d love to be able to read it at a leisurely pace.

TV, Movie, or Podcast

What I can’t be parted with

This is hard… if the rules didn’t state that this needs to be something inanimate I’d say my husband (especially since he wouldn’t be very impressed with me if I didn’t). So I think I will go with my oldest comfort item: my teddy-bear Chad, who has been with me since I was one and has travelled the world with me, so it wouldn’t be fair if he didn’t get to accompany me on this desert island stay.

What about you? What would you choose? I’d love to see other people’s posts on this, so let me know if you’ve written one and I’ll check it out!