In Newsweek this week, literary critic Harold Bloom offers his list of the five books he’d take to the desert island with him. Touchstone Magazine’s blog has some intriguing commentary, and some fun lists in the comments.

I will not be bringing the 2nd of 3 books I read tonight for work, because it was by-the-numbers chick lit. The five books I’d bring to the stupid desert island are:

1. The Bible (I have to, just like I have to say it’s my favorite book.)
2. War and Peace (I haven’t read it yet, but I have a feeling about it), which I would staple together with Anna Karenina
3. A very good cookbook, specializing in all kinds of seafood.
4. The complete works of Shakespeare (mine comes all in one book)
5. Robin Hobb’s Six Duchies Trilogies (because I bet if I asked nicely I could get somebody to stick them all in one book for me, since I am going on that desert island after all, I mean, it’s a chance to do something kind for a doomed young[ish] reader)