Bookseller One Grand Books has asked celebrities to name the ten titles they’d take to a desert island, and they’ve shared the results with Vulture. Below is model Lauren Huttons’s list.
The Whole Earth Catalogue
Alt-youth ’60s bible. Still the best survival skills I’ve ever collected.
The Complete I Ching
Three- or four-thousand years of collected information on how to live a life with reason and, eventually, wisdom. You ask it real questions, you get real answers — and they’ll smack you in the mouth.
I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, by Samuel Beckett
“Ever tried, Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.†Mantra for the self and a desert island. Plus, there’s a picture of him on the cover.
The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, by Jane Austen
Dirty books for ladies. Especially Mansfield Park. Not joking — it’s a sizzler. There might not be a good man around.
Annals of the Former World, by John McPhee
Three and a half inches thick. Big, but don’t be scared; McPhee’s a star’s star. This geologist-poet shows you how our Earth was made and continues to change. Sounds boring, but is sexy. All four men I gave it to think I’m a genius for having found it.
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller
Fast, fun, and horrific true tale of growing up on her family’s farms in Africa during the Rhodesian civil war. You’ll live through the joy and adrenaline of my favorite continent. And read it over and over.
Dispatches, by Michael Herr
Just read this again for the fifth time in 40 years. Best book about war ever written. You see exactly why men love war.  I needed to know why, and I think most women do, too.
Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt
Once I learned how to read Shakespeare (not till my mid-40s; I was a model), I realized maybe there are aliens out there who have two ideas per sentence. We’re lucky to get one per book. Greenblatt is a star-crossed scholar, whose bestie at Cambridge, Eric Idle, became a member of Monty Python. So how much more fun can you get? I’m already wheezing to blow this island to get Stephen’s latest, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, and will need all of Will’s sonnets and plays, too, for reference.
Cantos, by Ezra Pound
You learn, cry, and laugh, and have to understand history — and have to read 26 languages. If only he hadn’t gone crazy. He was a wizard.
They Call Her Styrene, by Ed Ruscha
Because I’ll be needing laughs.