I was having a look through TLC's thread about everybody's favourite movies and the premise reminded me of an excellent radio programme we have in the UK called Desert Island Discs. I don't know how aware you all are of the premise of DID but I'll explain it anyway.
The basic idea is that you're stranded on a Desert Island and to help you maintain your sanity you're allowed to take eight songs with you. These can be any eight songs and they don't necessarily have to be your favourite eight songs or the eight songs you think are the best, ideally they're eight songs that mean something to you and would help you through such a time. Of course they could easily be your eight favourite songs but just as easily one of them could be your favourite, one of them could remind you of a loved one and one of them could just be that song you're ashamed of loving that you'd finally be able to play at full volume twithout anyone judging you.
The eight songs provide the meat of the programme but on top of that everybody gets given the complete works of shakespeare (it's a british show after all), the bible or any other religious/philosophical text of choice and one more book of your choice. Also it's not in the programme but I thought we could chuck in a film as well.
And on top of all this you get given one final luxury item of your choice, this can be anything in the world EXCLUDING an item that would be of actual use in escaping/communicating with the outside world/surviving on the island. So you couldn't have a phone or a boat or a book on basic survival skills, the point of the exercise isn't to build a practical life on this island it's about exploring your solitude and exploiting an opportunity to be completely alone with your thoughts.
Oh and as a final kick in the crotch, after you've done this all a storm hits the island and you only have time to save one song (I'm a bastard, I know) so what would that final song be?
I'm actually gonna have a think about this before I post my list but I'd love to see what the rest of you think and see your lists.