"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe

Picture this: you’re on a ship in the middle of a storm, the vessel breaks apart, and you wake up alone on a beach. No phone, no map, no one coming. That is where “Robinson Crusoe” starts, and it only gets better from there.

Crusoe is a young man from England who goes to sea against his father’s advice, and the sea teaches him some hard lessons. After a shipwreck, he is the only survivor, stranded on a deserted island. To stay alive, he has to figure out everything himself. He salvages what he can from the wreck, builds a shelter, hunts, plants crops, and keeps a careful count of his days. Years go by. Then one day he spots something in the sand that changes everything: a single footprint.

Defoe published this in 1719, and people still call it one of the first great adventure novels. It’s the story that inspired countless survival stories, from movies to games to TV, so if you like stories about people outsmarting nature, you’ll feel right at home. It’s also a good test of what you’d do if you had nothing but your own wits.

Here is the unusual part. This is a 1988 paperback that has never been read. Not once. It’s in very good condition, and a copy like that is hard to find. Whoever gets it will be the first to crack it open.

Come and get your copy at Dead Tree Dreams. Your adventure is waiting.