This is an extremely hypothetical question, but I felt it might make for an interesting topic.

If you were stuck on an island and for, some reason wanted to bring a computer science (type of) book. In addition, were limited to bringing one, what would it be and why?

Well, if I knew that I was going to be stuck on an island and had to chose a book to bring with me, I would want one on survival tactics. Computers would be the last thing on my mind. Unless the island is in Hawaii and I'm stuck at a hotel or something.

Could rephrase the question I guess, what book could you not live without?

SICP

From the reviews...

Those who hate SICP think it doesn't deliver enough tips and tricks for the amount of time it takes to read. But if you're like me, you're not looking for one more trick, rather you're looking for a way of synthesizing what you already know, and building a rich framework onto which you can add new learning over a career. That's what SICP has done for me. I read a draft version of the book around 1982, when I was in grad school, and it changed the way I think about my profession. If you're a thoughtful computer scientist (or want to be one), it will change your life too.

This is one of the great classics of computer science. I bought my first copy 15 years ago, and I still don't feel I have learned everything the book has to teach.

I have learned enough to write a couple books on Lisp that (currently) have four to five stars.

Nevertheless, I think this is a great book because it discusses lots of ideas that receive inadequate or no coverage elsewhere. The material on compilers, for instance, is difficult (and idiosyncratic because they're compiling scheme, which has its own pecularities compared to, say, compiling C) but if you can work through it you get a pretty deep understanding of what's going on, without having to get bogged down in parsing or other trivial stuff. My suggestion: DO NOT read this book if you are just learning how to program; come back to it after a few years of experience and it will stretch your mind.

The biggest and the most fat most one ever existed...

I need to light fire somehow... paper burns nicely (not requiring big temperature) and would help me start fires extremely well, thus making survival easier :).

I'd bring a book that is structurally equivalent to a fueled up speed boat full of rations and navigation equipment. I suspect that this book would cover best practices for genetic algorithm design, and would very probably be either 2nd or 3rd edition.

Id pick one of the suggestions in this thread, as an e-book, and hope the system is flawed and provides me with a fully functional computer.

Id buy it from a big multinational corporation to increase the probability of there being an always-on DRM present which should result in an internet connection being available.

Then i spend the rest of my life scamming internet ad companies trying to accumulate enough money to buy stuff to make the island habitable. No point in trying to escape, its got to be some kind of a magical no-escape island surrounded by a warp field of some sort anyways....

No i dont have anything to contribute with. Sorry.

The biggest book with the softest paper I can find... Topic doesn't matter.

The biggest book with the softest paper I can find... Topic doesn't matter.

The biggest book with the softest paper I can find... Topic doesn't matter.

I think that would be some sort of bible.

Id say you didn't get the point

Also why bible associated with soft paper?