What Books to Read

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Juliet 15

Juliet 15

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I admit I got the idea for this thread from a previous thread about what to watch on TV while cruising. I personally don't watch TV, but I have years of cruising ahead. I want to spend much of it reading all those books I never had time to read. I dream of sitting lazily on the bow reading books (like Winston Churchill's autobiography) as the Pacific passes beneath me.

Do you love to read? I bet we've all got some titles we'll never forget, books that changed us. Maybe we can help each other with some recommendations.

What books would you recommend to your fellow TF brethren as the top 2 books of your life?
 
Get a Kindle and you can get e-books free from your local library. Also join BookBub for daily books from free to $2.99.
 
Someone asked my favorite literary work. The first 19 places go the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'brian, then we can talk about number 20.
 
Anything by C.S. Forester. Read the Hornblower series in chronological order starting with Midshipman Hornblower.

I don’t buy real books any more. I just get the Kindle edition and keep it on my iPad. I can make the type as big as I need to.
 
HopCar said:
Anything by C.S. Forester. Read the Hornblower series in chronological order starting with Midshipman Hornblower.
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Read them serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. shaped my literary tastes forever.
 
This book is going to sound really boring, I bought it because the reviews were very good. I've read it once and I'm beginning to read it a second time. The book is about tides from a scientific, spiritual, geographical, superstitious angle. I read very few books a second time so let that be my recommendation.

"Tides" The Science and Spirit of the Ocean by Jonathan White. It is difficult to tell you about this book, it brings in some amazing scientific notions about many things including time. You will find it very interesting.

This from the Indigo site:

In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture-the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet's waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/tides-the-science-and-spirit/9781595348517-item.html
 
HopCar said:
Anything by C.S. Forester. Read the Hornblower series in chronological order starting with Midshipman Hornblower.
Click to expand...

Forester wrote them out of sequence. His first was Beat to Quarters, in which Hornblower was already a Captain. He gave his hero a lot of features and quirks, such as his chronic sea sickness. Once you understand that, it is great fun to read the early (written later) episodes where he develops these idiosyncrasies.
 
AlaskaProf said:
Read them serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. shaped my literary tastes forever.
Click to expand...

Have you read Cornwell’s Sharpe’s series? If you enjoy Forester and O’Brian you’ll like Cornwell. There is an homage to Forester in one of his books when Forester’s Rifleman Dodd makes an appearance.
 
rsn48 said:
This book is going to sound really boring, I bought it because the reviews were very good. I've read it once and I'm beginning to read it a second time. The book is about tides from a scientific, spiritual, geographical, superstitious angle. I read very few books a second time so let that be my recommendation.

"Tides" The Science and Spirit of the Ocean by Jonathan White. It is difficult to tell you about this book, it brings in some amazing scientific notions about many things including time. You will find it very interesting.

This from the Indigo site:

In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture-the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet's waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/tides-the-science-and-spirit/9781595348517-item.html
Click to expand...

Thanks. Looks interesting, I just ordered it.

Here are a few that I enjoyed:

1. 12 Books That Changed The World

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ss...j46j0j69i60.5078j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

2. A Short History of the World

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/698736.A_Short_History_of_the_World

3. Mining in World History

https://www.amazon.com/Mining-World-History-Globalities-Martin/dp/1861891733

What do you think of when you hear the word Guggenheim? Museums? #3 has a great backstory to that question, and a lot more.
 
Having enjoyed all of the O'Brien and Forester books, the challenge arose last winter when we went cruising on a 37 day Ocean cruise on a small 930 passenger cruise ship.
There being no way to carry books with us, and only so much time to load the Kindle, I was delighted to discover an excellent library aboard ship. In our sea days, I spent some time every day reading, and by the end of the cruise, I had enjoyed at least 20 books. Mostly they were historical non-fiction with an emphasis on the great periods of exploration. The oldest story was about Columbus' son, who crossed the Atlantic a few times, travelling the world to accumulate a library.
After leaving the ship, I learned how much effort went into curating the collection, done by a book shop in London that lists Queen Elizabeth as one of their customers. I want to get hold of one of their reading lists before my next cruise.
 
AlaskaProf said:
Someone asked my favorite literary work. The first 19 places go the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'brian, then we can talk about number 20.
Click to expand...


Nineteen? You have treat coming, there are twenty in the series, plus the unfinished novel.
 
HopCar said:
Have you read Cornwell’s Sharpe’s series? If you enjoy Forester and O’Brian you’ll like Cornwell. There is an homage to Forester in one of his books when Forester’s Rifleman Dodd makes an appearance.
Click to expand...

Several. ...and a few of the BBC shows. I think Sean Bean did a good job of capturing the character.

How 'bout G.M. Fraser's Flashman?
 
Andy G said:
[/B]

Nineteen? You have treat coming, there are twenty in the series, plus the unfinished novel.
Click to expand...

...err ...oops. Just walked over to the bookshelf and counted...twenty, Blue at the Mizzen the last, plus, of course, the two Anson works. I've read the final fragment, but found it unsatisfying; not surprising, I suppose for a first draft.
 
Okay here are 2 plus 3 bonus books:)
*Tinkerbelle by Robert Manry. He scooted across the Atlantic in a 13.5 foot sailboat because he wanted to do it. No sponsors or PR just a man and a dream. Inspiring read.
*Endurance by Alfred Lansing. An account of Ernest Shackleton's trip to the Antarctica that went sideways. A time when men were men.
*Adrift by Steve Callahan. Rode the tradewinds in a life raft for 76 days before making landfall. He believed an angry whale holed his sailboat and replays surviving in a life raft.
*Rescue In the Pacific by Tony Farrington. Mother Nature clarifies who's the boss by tossing 40 and 50 foot boats around like sea foam while mortal humans worked through miraculous rescues. Underscores the benefits of a boat that can make 500 miles a day or a freighter if Mother Nature comes calling.
*The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Similar to Rescue in the Pacific but Mother Nature leaves her call card on the Atlantic side. Again some truly miraculous rescues are documented. The heroics in in Rescue in the Pacific and Perfect Storm are incredible.
 
There is a lot of material about Shackleton, but I agree that Lansing's account is the most readable I've encountered. Maybe the best account of small unit leadership until Stephen Ambrose introduced us to Dick Winters.;)
 
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AlaskaProf said:
. I've read the final fragment, but found it unsatisfying; not surprising, I suppose for a first draft.
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Yes I agree, in hindsight 'Blue at the Mizzen' was the natural end to the series. The unfinished novel was not much more than a rough first draft.

I am still pretty annoyed at O'Brien for what he did to poor Barret Bonden, he deserved to sail off into the sunset in the Surprise (The Surprise is not old. No one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines, she is a fine sea-boat, weatherly, stiff and fast. Very fast, if she's well handled.") with Aubrey, Maturin & Kilick.

O'Brien was a notoriously prickly character, he probably got out of bed on the wrong side one morning and decided to do Bonden in.
 
Andy G said:
[/B]

I am still pretty annoyed at O'Brien for what he did to poor Barret Bonden,

O'Brien was a notoriously prickly character, he probably got out of bed on the wrong side one morning and decided to do Bonden in.
Click to expand...

"Lost the number of his mess."
:lol:
 
 
Here goes, in no particular order...

Michener... Chesapeake a classic of sorts

Perfect storm

Adrift

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Tony Horwitz


Endurance just arrived in the mail today... looking forward to it. The documentary was exceptional.
 
koliver said:
. I want to get hold of one of their reading lists before my next cruise.
Click to expand...

I now have the cruise line reading lists for the cruise itinerary from LA to London. I am starting with a book about Lisbon's WW II role. I'll let you know if it lives up to my expectations.
 
BC history; for those who know and enjoy our coast and those who think they do and insist on telling us about BC.

Jim Spilsbury
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/spilsb...6&idiq=2310739

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-ac...4&idiq=1703381

https://www.amazon.ca/Spilsburys-Alb.../dp/1550171267

Union Steamships
https://www.amazon.ca/Good-Company-A.../dp/1550171119

https://www.abebooks.com/first-editi...11133349802/bd

https://www.amazon.ca/Whistle-inlet-.../dp/0888941862

Thanks, I have saved these recommendations. Some very good used bookstores in Coombs, and two in Parksville, these titles look like the kind of books that show up there.
 
Yep, agree with all who say to get a Kindle. You can get whatever you want. Get a Kindle Unlimited membership - many books from Amazon can be borrowed for free. Best books, authors: Bernard Cornwell books, Ken Follet books, especially the Pillars of the Earth series, including the new prequel, In the Morning and the Evening, Shogun (can't remember the author), plus all the escapist thrillers by Baldacci, Patterson, Cussler, etc.
 
Shogun was by James Clavell, whose entire "Asia" ouvre is terrific reading - (in addition to Shogun), Ta Pan, Noble House, King Rat, Whirlwind and Gai Jin.
 
My vote would go to "Antarctica:A Biography", by David Day, which is the history of the discovery of the continent. It includes voyage histories of famous sailors we all know, like James Cook, but also some most of us have probably never heard of. I sailed there on a square-rigged ship several years ago, but reading about people who did it with no charts, no weather information, no electronics, no radio, no idea of how far it might be, or if it really existed, really brought home how brave, or foolhardy - or both!- humans can be, and how, once we can an idea in our heads, some of us just don't give up no matter what!
 
HopCar said:
Anything by C.S. Forester. Read the Hornblower series in chronological order starting with Midshipman Hornblower.

I don’t buy real books any more. I just get the Kindle edition and keep it on my iPad. I can make the type as big as I need to.
Click to expand...

If you like Forester and O'brian try Dewy Lambdin, and Julian Stockwin
 
For fun easy reading, Ken Bruen is my favorite author. Check out "The Guards".
 
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