THE FIVE BOOKS YOU WOULD TAKE TO A DESERT ISLAND AND WHY

Adolfo V. Nodal, 50, general manager of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

1. “Chapman Piloting: Seamanship & Small Boat Handling,” by Charles Chapman and Elbert S. Maloney

I’m a sailing fanatic. I read sailing books and navigation books for relaxation. This is the most important book of them all. Like the Bible. A very famous book. If I ever get off the island, I’ll know how to get around.

2. “Jose Marti Reader: Writings on the Americas,” by Jose Marti

He’s my hero, a very famous liberator in Latin America. He was a person who combined a really conscious political mind with the arts and culture. Along with being an incredible politician, he was one of the most sublime poets in the world. And he was Cuban. I’m Cuban.

3. “The Little Sister,” by Raymond Chandler

L.A. is a city I adore. I got to understand it through Raymond Chandler, to see L.A. in a way I hadn’t seen before. The nuance of L.A., what makes it interesting. It’s a feeling about the place, a sense of pathos, an attitude that L.A. is constantly reinventing itself. Chandler wrote very movingly back then in the ‘30s and the ‘40s. It’s an L.A. that is still here. Chandler helped me to see it for what it was.

4. “Fabulous Boulevard,” by Ralph Hancock

This is a book about how Wilshire Boulevard grew and how L.A. grew up around it. Wilshire is the spine of L.A. It’s my favorite street on Earth. I live on Wilshire. It’s a street that has gone through a lot of change.

It has a lot of nostalgia attached to it, about what L.A. was like in the ‘30s and ‘40s, my favorite period.

5. “The Satanic Verses,” by Salman Rushdie

I don’t know anything about this book, but I’ve always meant to read it because I hate censorship. I don’t like it when people can’t read something because it is banned. When a book garners so much ire from a government [in this case, Iran], it deserves attention. I’m not even sure if I’ll like it, but it’s a book I want to read before I die.