Books for reading

[Mike Vacanti]

This is a kid's book but I recently read  "The Lion's Paw" to my kids and they enjoyed it. I read the book in the late 60's when I was in 4th grade and I wanted to introduce it to my kids. Part of the appeal to me was because it takes place in the part of Florida where I was raised. It was written by Robb White's Father.

[Randy Jones]

Yes Greg, that's the same book.

[Greg Luckett]

Randy, I thought it probably was, based on your description, so I ordered a copy. Thanks for the info.

Yes Greg, that's the same book.

[s1bwebb]

I just finished reading "without a paddle" by Warren Richey, who won the first Watertribe UFC in 2006. It is about his journey through the race and an excellent book. I actually read it all in two days!

I highly recommend it, available on Amazon.

Also, the various books and reprinted articles by Capt'n "Fatty" Goodlander are very amusing.

[Dogdad]

I just finished O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels--actually, I've been rereading most of them so I'm not really finished.  I love the technical details (though I haven't quite puzzled out how a full-rigged ship is tacked) as well as the main characters and story.  O'Brien has recreated a rich world for me.  I wish he had lived to finish the 21st.

If you like audiobooks, the O'Brian series as read by Patrick Tull is excellent.  My wife accumulated the whole series -- unabridged -- from audible.com, and we pick up some new nuance of the writing every time we listen.

Other good reads:

The survival of the bark canoe"  by John McPhee

"HMS Ulysses"(WWII novel) by Alistair MacLean

"Structures" by J.E. Gordon.  A wonderful introduction to the basics of tension, compression, torsion, etc., written with a sense of humor and a minimum of math.  It reads like a pub conversation with your favorite professor.  Among other things, it introduced me to Rudyard Kipling's delightful short story "The ship who found herself".  http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2414/

Other nautical Kipling short stories:  "Bread upon the waters"    http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2408/,  and "The devil and the deep sea" http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/TheDaysWork/deepsea.html

[Tom Lathrop]

I just finished O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels--actually, I've been rereading most of them so I'm not really finished.  I love the technical details (though I haven't quite puzzled out how a full-rigged ship is tacked) as well as the main characters and story.  O'Brien has recreated a rich world for me.  I wish he had lived to finish the 21st.

If you like audiobooks, the O'Brian series as read by Patrick Tull is excellent.  My wife accumulated the whole series -- unabridged -- from audible.com, and we pick up some new nuance of the writing every time we listen.

Other good reads:

The survival of the bark canoe"  by John McPhee

"HMS Ulysses"(WWII novel) by Alistair MacLean

"Structures" by J.E. Gordon.  A wonderful introduction to the basics of tension, compression, torsion, etc., written with a sense of humor and a minimum of math.  It reads like a pub conversation with your favorite professor.  Among other things, it introduced me to Rudyard Kipling's delightful short story "The ship who found herself".  http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2414/

Other nautical Kipling short stories:  "Bread upon the waters"    http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2408/,  and "The devil and the deep sea" http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/TheDaysWork/deepsea.html

Structures?  I never thought anyone else here had read that.  For anyone interested in basic physics of structures (and a boat is filed with them), this is a really easy read and filled with good non-technical information.  I will look up McPhee on the bark canoe.  Thought I had most of his but have not seen this one.

[Garry]

Has anyone suggested Riddle of the Sands yet? A fascinating thriller about sailing a small boat in the English Channel just before WWI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riddle_of_the_Sands

[anchorh]

At this time of year book lists are all the rage.

I have (and love) Aubrey / Maturin, Hornblower, Bolitho and have just found Charles Saunders Hayden (in the book Under Enemy Colors by S. Thomas Russell).

But the 2 books to which I keep returning for rereads are:

The Compleat Cruiser by L. Francis Herreshoff

Sou'West & by West of Cape Cod by Llewellyn Howland

How could you compete with those 2 families?

Steve

[napaman]

I just picked up a book called: "Through Europe at Four Knots" by Les Horn...

Still on another book about Slocum...but this will be my next read---about a guy who convinces his family to sail a boat through eastern europe at the end of communism...early 1990's...looks interesting...

[John Turpin]

I just picked up a book called: "Through Europe at Four Knots" by Les Horn...

I just finished that one and it was very enjoyable.  Those types of books are dangerous to me.  They give me ideas . . .

[Frank Hagan]

Matt,

That is a good idea. How about it Frank?

That's an interesting idea ...

[Frank Hagan]

There are quite a few that have full views enabled on Google Books, which means you can read them online for free (these are older, or otherwise out of copyright books):

http://goo.gl/IlZZP

Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World is online free: http://goo.gl/Xn05W

The neat thing, if you have an eBook reader, is that these books are free to download also.  You can get a free app for your Android phone, iPhone or iPad, or your computer, to read them in ePub format (I actually like Adobe's Digital Editions program for reading ePub books; my local library also has an on-line lending section for more current books that are still under copyright). 

[Garry]

Library Thing has a list of 475 books with at least one review that have been tagged "sailors." You may want to browse the list and check out the reviews. The books range from classics (Melville, Conrad) to recent books including sea stories (of course), children's books, psychological studies (The Mind of a Sailor), novels, fantasies and more. Each title is linked to the reviews and many of them would be available for free download at Google Books or http://www.gutenberg.org.

http://www.librarything.com/tag/sailors

[MW Jones]

Short list of sailing/voyages books

1. The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss (1913) who can resist the title, sailed a redwood dugout canoe (decked over and schooner rigged) around the world

2. The Fight of the