What book would you bring to a desert island?
September 22, 2002 | 12:00am
If you were stuck on a desert island – without a cell phone, television, radio and computer – and could bring only one book, what would it be?
Would it be a book to entertain you, to give you knowledge, to make you laugh and forget that you were indeed alone with no one to talk to, or a book that would guide you spiritually?
Without a doubt, reading the right books enriches our lives. If you ask my dad anything about history, he will be able to give you an immediate answer, thanks to his love of books. But if you ask people what kind of book would they bring to a desert island, the answers are varied as they are interesting.
Laurice Guillen, TV and movie director: Either the Bible or the Blue Book (the book contains messages of Our Lady to Father Gobbi) because if you go to the desert you will either feel extremely peaceful or extremely lonely in which case these books are the most necessary reading companions for me.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes: If I’m going to stay long, the book that I would bring should be compelling enough to sustain my interest in the subject and thereby escape boredom. Hence, I would bring a book that contains the most comprehensive and current treatise on the history and future of mankind.
Socorro Ramos, manager, National Book Store: The Bible. It’s the biggest prayer book. After all, on a deserted island, the only person you can talk to is God. It is a good way to pass the time and also to grow.
Finance Secretary Isidro Camacho: A reference on dogs, horses, birds or wild mammals.
Clarissa Ocampo, executive adviser, Corplan, Equitable PCI Bank: Since I’m handling something now in the bank but no longer in the trust department, I will bring my Finance Economics and Management books as I need to brush up on these subjects, aside from the fact that I enjoy reading them.
Hilarion M. Henares Jr., presidential consultant for national affairs: In the days before fighting fish movies and explicit sex books, when I was a teenager on the verge of puberty, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, the book condemned by the Legion Decency and the good Jesuit fathers of Ateneo, awakened my manhood with one particular passage describing the seduction of Maria by the hero Robert Jordan.
I remember that Hemingway used only one word, and wielded it like the human body in heat, in rhythmic, pulsating, climactic concatenation. It made such an impact on me, I remember every word of it after 65 years.
"For him it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, and again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere, heavy on the elbows in the earth to nowhere, dark, never any end to nowhere, hung on all the time, always to unknowing nowhere, this time and again for always to nowhere, now not to be borne once again always and to nowhere, now beyond all bearing up, up, up and into nowhere suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly all nowhere gone and time absolutely still and they were both here, time having stopped and he felt the earth move out and away under them."
To me, this passage depicts unbounded passion, tender, yet towering savage passion, blind to the rest of the world and intent upon its consummation.This is the way. Most of us experience the act of love, not the way it is depicted in the perineum in sex movies. My God, we never even see what goes on below the belt...unless we are assholes, sphincter ani.
Dr. Miriam Defensor Santiago, lawyer: The incomparable Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, a Roman patrician circa 480-526. Written in prison, this book is a classic meditation on evil, and the unreliability of fortune.
The book addresses the problem: "Why is it that evil people in this world seem to prosper, and the good suffer?"
The most significant part of the book tries to answer the classic puzzle: "If God knows in advance what one is going to do, then how can one have any free choice in the matter?" In other words, the book tries to show how foreknowledge can be compatible with free will.
Boethius’ ingenious solution is to say that God operates outside time: "God can know even our future acts without in any way interfering with their contingency." This is a classic solution, although it is less than successful.
Anyway, on a desert island, I would swim a lot and play with the dolphins, so the imperfections of the book wouldn’t matter!
Would it be a book to entertain you, to give you knowledge, to make you laugh and forget that you were indeed alone with no one to talk to, or a book that would guide you spiritually?
Without a doubt, reading the right books enriches our lives. If you ask my dad anything about history, he will be able to give you an immediate answer, thanks to his love of books. But if you ask people what kind of book would they bring to a desert island, the answers are varied as they are interesting.
Laurice Guillen, TV and movie director: Either the Bible or the Blue Book (the book contains messages of Our Lady to Father Gobbi) because if you go to the desert you will either feel extremely peaceful or extremely lonely in which case these books are the most necessary reading companions for me.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes: If I’m going to stay long, the book that I would bring should be compelling enough to sustain my interest in the subject and thereby escape boredom. Hence, I would bring a book that contains the most comprehensive and current treatise on the history and future of mankind.
Socorro Ramos, manager, National Book Store: The Bible. It’s the biggest prayer book. After all, on a deserted island, the only person you can talk to is God. It is a good way to pass the time and also to grow.
Finance Secretary Isidro Camacho: A reference on dogs, horses, birds or wild mammals.
Clarissa Ocampo, executive adviser, Corplan, Equitable PCI Bank: Since I’m handling something now in the bank but no longer in the trust department, I will bring my Finance Economics and Management books as I need to brush up on these subjects, aside from the fact that I enjoy reading them.
Hilarion M. Henares Jr., presidential consultant for national affairs: In the days before fighting fish movies and explicit sex books, when I was a teenager on the verge of puberty, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, the book condemned by the Legion Decency and the good Jesuit fathers of Ateneo, awakened my manhood with one particular passage describing the seduction of Maria by the hero Robert Jordan.
I remember that Hemingway used only one word, and wielded it like the human body in heat, in rhythmic, pulsating, climactic concatenation. It made such an impact on me, I remember every word of it after 65 years.
"For him it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, and again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere, heavy on the elbows in the earth to nowhere, dark, never any end to nowhere, hung on all the time, always to unknowing nowhere, this time and again for always to nowhere, now not to be borne once again always and to nowhere, now beyond all bearing up, up, up and into nowhere suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly all nowhere gone and time absolutely still and they were both here, time having stopped and he felt the earth move out and away under them."
To me, this passage depicts unbounded passion, tender, yet towering savage passion, blind to the rest of the world and intent upon its consummation.This is the way. Most of us experience the act of love, not the way it is depicted in the perineum in sex movies. My God, we never even see what goes on below the belt...unless we are assholes, sphincter ani.
Dr. Miriam Defensor Santiago, lawyer: The incomparable Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, a Roman patrician circa 480-526. Written in prison, this book is a classic meditation on evil, and the unreliability of fortune.
The book addresses the problem: "Why is it that evil people in this world seem to prosper, and the good suffer?"
The most significant part of the book tries to answer the classic puzzle: "If God knows in advance what one is going to do, then how can one have any free choice in the matter?" In other words, the book tries to show how foreknowledge can be compatible with free will.
Boethius’ ingenious solution is to say that God operates outside time: "God can know even our future acts without in any way interfering with their contingency." This is a classic solution, although it is less than successful.
Anyway, on a desert island, I would swim a lot and play with the dolphins, so the imperfections of the book wouldn’t matter!
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