What is your favorite Sailing book?

[inshallamiami]

"Steered by the Falling Star" by Daniel Spurr. This well known sailing writer tries to go cruising but life gets in the way. It's a little known gem, beautiful and honest.

[bloodhunter]

You might pick up Bowditch's American Practical Navigator (available through Amazon). Has a wealth of nautical information on every subject from Achoring to Navigation. You can turn to almost any page at random and find something interesting to read. I've spent hours doing that.

[zz4gta]

North U Trim &
North U Tactics.

[painkiller]

Originally Posted by mightyhorton

I've got to agree with CBinRI. I lost months of productivity when I found the O'Brian series. They are so rich with character, with history, with the salty sea, with lessons on life, with action, with contemplation..... plus, as long as you can stand really really long sentences and bad puns, they are just so much fun to read.

If you like those, check out the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester if you haven't already. As excellent as the Aubrey/Maturin books are, the Hornblower books are even better. More action and intrigue and no getting side-tracked on nature hikes with Maturin. Also, the rich-again, poor-again storyline in the Aubrey/Maturin books can sometimes get a bit wearisome.

[johnshasteen]

My favorite non-fiction read is John Rousmaniere's Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing,

[tager]

Around the World Alone -Joshua Slocum

The title is a bit misleading, he had a spider onboard for a while. Not to mention all of those dust mites and intestinal parasites.

The Inside Passage- Jonathan Raban

Very good account of drama, sailing, history, and geography. Good read. His boat can be seen at Ewing Street Moorings in Seattle.

The Biggest Boat I could Afford- Lee Hughes

Funny dry wit, in retrospect it was a bit of a chore to read, but somehow I read the whole thing in a day. Mixed feelings about it.

Good Boatkeeping-

Lots of random and useful info!

[jbarros]

In the "in the style to which I would like to become accustomed" category, I really enjoyed 3 separate books by William F. Buckley Jr. covering 3 separate sails with his family and family friends. I don't necessarily share any political views with him, but he's a great writer, and the stories are nice.

"Atlantic High" and "Airborne", both about seperate Atlantic crossings, and
"Racing through Paradise" a pacific crossing.

Happily, while looking these up, I discovered another one I didn't know of, "Windfall" which I think I'll be picking up this next Amazon order, and see how it is.

-- James

[painkiller]

Ooh, I forgot one great, funny book:

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowatt

I lent my copy of this to somebody and now I need to figure out who it was.

[dbruce85]

A few years back, my daughter spent Christmas and New Years visiting friends in Cork Ireland.
When she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told het to pick me up something in Ireland.
I told her she would know it when she saw it.
She hit it big time.
The book is "Northabout, Sailing the Northeast and Northwest Passage" by Jarlath Cunnane.
I true story.
As I was getting near the end, I found myself avoiding reading, because I knew I would soon be finished.

[mightyhorton]

I just got a catalog in the mail yesterday right on topic for this thread. Well, at least tangentially related.

Sheridan House: America's Favorite Sailing Books The catalog is called "America's Favorite Sailing Books". 50 pages of sailing books, fiction, non-fiction, educational, biographical, true stores.

And, Painkiller, I like nature hikes, once or twice a year, and the rich again/poor again thing reminds me of what happens to sailors on land, eh? The Hornblower series is great, I admit it. The catalog lists the Nathaniel Drinkwater series, a series that it says is in the tradition of C.S. Forester.