My favorite books. If I was stranded on an island and could only take one book with me I'd cheat a little and ask for Joyce Carys 1st trilogy made up of three short novels; Herself Surprised, To be a Pilgrim, and The Horses Mouth. It would be a tougher choice if I had to select only one of the three because each is a masterpiece. To read them all is like a wonderful meal at Genoa except instead of five courses it's three and dessert is served first. Each book is about a life told in the 1st person. It's all there in three volumes; life lived to the fullest and life squandered, the world of men and women, art, politics, youth, age, birth, death,love, God, poetry, philosophy, history. Everything, really, I mean it. I believe that anyone who reads them can count themselves better educated. Over a period of thirty years I've read them all many times and each time I draw something new from them. I have the complete trilogy in one volume, and with the help of Powells and E-bay I managed to find all three in separate volumes of the 1st American Printing with the covers designed by Alan Haemer. The trilogy doesn't have to be read in sequence and most people have only read the last and most popular and easiest to find third volume, The Horses Mouth.