Boating Book Recommendations for Local Library

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CNL43

CNL43

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
Messages
21
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Mary Barrow
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C&L Sea Ranger 43
Other than Chapman's, what boating books would you recommend for a public library? I work at a Public Library in Wisconsin and we are in the process of updating our very sad boating collection. I was considering recommending Pascoe's 'Mid Size Power Boats: A Guide for Discriminating Buyers,' but it is pretty outdated (2003). Any good Loop recommendations? Any other top favorites?
 
For reference, Bowditch is the nautical bible. The American Merchant Seaman's manual is full of good stuff too. Anything by Nigel Calder is worth having. A dozen copies of Rules of the Road is probably good too

On the more entertaining side of the fence, these ones are some of my favorites:

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float - Farley Mowat
A World of My Own - Sir Robin Knox Johnston
The Long Way - Bernard Moitessier
Two Years Before the Mast - Richard Henry Dana
The Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Jeremiah O'Brien
Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forrester
 
A little history

Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
By Stephen r Bown
 
The Last Grain Race, by Eric Newby, is a fine story about commercial sailing ships. Depends what the Library wants to stock, but good stories from a humorous writer with real experience can be popular.
 
Thanks for all the recommendations. This will most certainly help the selectors.
 
Voyaging Under Power, Robert Beebe
But then I'm somewhat biased, as we own a Beebe boat!:D
 
Any of the books by Eric Hiscock...Although he writes about his and his wife's travels sailing, the nautical knowledge in each book is priceless and pertains to power boating also..........
 
Reference? Memoir? Fiction? Most of my experience is sailing, and I think most works come from that genre. With the Great Lakes nearby I'd look for some powerboat handling books, some anchoring books, and maybe a cruising guide or two.

For general reference, anything by Nigel Calder. Heavily recommended and considered "the bible" for boat maintenance.

Memoir: anything by Lin and Larry Pardy. Or Eric Hiscock. Or Robin Knox-Johnston. All sailors but they have inspired thousands of voyages.

Fiction: Can't speak to it much but the Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin series are considered classic.
 
The Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. (Previously mentioned above but mistaken author reference).

They are about sailing, friendship and life.
 
Here's a bunch:


[FONT=&quot]HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, POLITICS, WAR, HISTORICAL NOVELS

Dreadnought (19th cent. lead-up to WW I, development of battleships) Robert Massie
also: Castles of Steel (WW I battleships and battles)

The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk

The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy

The Riddle of the Sands (Sailors discover German pre WW I buildup) Erskine Childers

The Cruel Sea (escorting convoys during WW II) Nicholas Monsarrat

Sea of Thunder Evan Thomas[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Sea of Glory Nathaniel Philbrick[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Alaska James Michener
also: Tales of the South Pacific

Empire of Blue Water (Pirates and Bucaneers in the Carribean islands) Stephen Talty

Jack Aubrey series (Master and Commander, etc) Patrick O’Brian[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]also: The Golden Ocean & The Unknown Shore (prior to Aubrey series)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Cochrane (the real captain who was the model for Jack Aubrey) Robert Harvey


BOATS, CRUISING, FISHING, EXPLORATION, the SEA

The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Sea Wolf Jack London[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Alaska Blues, and Journeys on the Inside Passage Joe Upton

As the Sailor Loves the Sea Ballard Hadman[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Curve of Time (early small boat cruising on the BC coast) Wylie Blanchet

My Old Man and the Sea (Sailing around South America and Cape Horn) Hays & Hays

Spilsbury’s Coast (Pioneer Years in the Wet West) Howard White and Jim Spilsbury[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In the Heart of the Sea (Moby Dick was based on this true story) Nathaniel Philbrick

Over the Edge of the World (Magellan's Circumnavigation) Laurence Bergreen

Mutiny on the Bounty Charles Nordhoff

Endurance true story - Ernest Shackleton’s Incredible Antarctic Voyage Alfred Lansing

South: Memoir of the Endurance Voyage Ernest Shackleton

The Perfect Storm (sinking of the sword fishing boat Andrea Gail) Sebastian Junger

The Hungry Ocean (and others) Linda Greenlaw
(stories by the real female sword boat captain involved in the Perfect Storm)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Blues John Hersey[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]River Horse William Least Heat Moon

Grey Seas Under (Remarkable rescues on high seas of the north Atlantic) Farley Mowat[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]also: The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float

Adrift (True story of survival raft crossing the Atlantic) Steven Callahan

Cape Horn (scary true adventure, sailing the southern ocean) Hemingway-Douglass

Cod (the fish that helped inspire discovery and exploration of N. America) Mark Kurlansky

Longitude (revolutionary improvement in navigation - invention of Chronometer) Dava Sobel

Where the Sea Breaks its Back (discovery of Alaska by Bering and Stellar) Corey Ford

Working on the Edge, & others (King Crab fishing in the Bering Sea) Spike Walker [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Sailing Alone Around the World Joshua Slocum

Travels in Alaska John Muir

Heart of the Raincoast (life on the BC Coast) Morton & Proctor

Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson

Sitka (historically-based Alaska adventure) Louis L’Amour[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Blue Bear Lynn Schooler[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Boys in the Boat Daniel James Brown[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Shipping News Annie Proulx[/FONT]
 
BruceK said:
The Last Grain Race, by Eric Newby, is a fine story about commercial sailing ships. Depends what the Library wants to stock, but good stories from a humorous writer with real experience can be popular.
Click to expand...

I got this one on your recommendation, and I'm looking forward to reading it!

Gdavid said:
Hilarious book and your writing style reminds me of his.
Click to expand...

It's one of my favorites. Lots of fun.

PMF1984 said:
The Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. (Previously mentioned above but mistaken author reference).

They are about sailing, friendship and life.
Click to expand...

PATRICK! Gah, you're right! Jeremiah O'Brien is a liberty ship... hahaha. oops!
 
Honey, Let's Get a Boat... A Cruising Adventure of America's Great Loop – June 1, 2003



by Ron Stob (Author), Eva Stob (Author)
 
The Nature of Boats -- Dave Gerr


Oceanography and Seamanship -- William G Van Dorn (mostly about ocean boating, so probably not a great early choice in Wisconsin, but, aside from several of Calder's books, it's the first book I recommend to people boating on salt water.)


Jim
 
Great information for all boaters everywhere, even in Wisconsin:

"The New Get Rid of Boat Odors: A Boat Owner’s Guide to Marine Sanitation Systems and Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor" by Peggie Hall
 
Sod's Law of the Sea - Bill Lucas and Andrew Spedding.


Cruising - Johnathan Raban.


Pacific Ordeal - Kenneth Ainslie.


A World of my Own - Robin Knox-Johnson.


My Lively Lady - Alec Rose.


All Weather Yachtsman - Peter Haward.


All a bit adventurous, but great books.


The first book is mostly true, and very funny. Especially the bit about the airplane landing on an ocean liner on its way to New York!
 
Sailing In A Spoonfull Of Water by Joe Coomer
Any book by Linda Greenlaw
Any book by Lin & Larry Pardey
Airborne by William F Buckley
Maine Lobsterboats by Virginia L Thorndike
Ralph Stanley Tales of a Maine Boatbuilder by Craig S Milner
 
What type books?

Technical or I went/saw/ conquered books that might be a good read but not good "how to" books as many of those authors were lucky, not good seaman.
 
Fastnet Force Ten
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea
 
Books for the Wisconsin Library

The Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brien. The Recorded Book version of these 22 novels (read by Patrick Tull) is superb.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Wayfarer said:
For reference, Bowditch is the nautical bible. The American Merchant Seaman's manual is full of good stuff too. Anything by Nigel Calder is worth having. A dozen copies of Rules of the Road is probably good too.

On the more entertaining side of the fence, these ones are some of my favorites:

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float - Farley Mowat
A World of My Own - Sir Robin Knox Johnston
The Long Way - Bernard Moitessier
Two Years Before the Mast - Richard Henry Dana
The Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Jeremiah O'Brien
Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forrester
Click to expand...
 
CNL43 said:
Other than Chapman's, what boating books would you recommend for a public library? I work at a Public Library in Wisconsin and we are in the process of updating our very sad boating collection. I was considering recommending Pascoe's 'Mid Size Power Boats: A Guide for Discriminating Buyers,' but it is pretty outdated (2003). Any good Loop recommendations? Any other top favorites?
Click to expand...

Do you want any donations. I have all the titles, have read them all, and don't need them filling up my bookshelves anymore. I'd be happy to donate the collection. Could you pay shipping? Would that be less expensive than buying the books? Let me know. I've got a great library of nautical books, everything your have mentioned so far, both non-fiction and fiction. I'd love them to go to a good cause.
 
Tinkerbelle by Robert Manry. A mid-60s account of his Atlantic crossing in a 13.5 foot sailboat.

Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual by Nigel Calder

Don't forget a book about knots:)
 
Nicholas Monserrat has been mentioned all ready with the “Cruel Sea”. Another book is “Master Mariner”. It’s kind of a Flying Dutchman story with a sailor doomed to sail the seas across centuries. A great sea book.
 
My humble offering is 'Longitude' by Dava Sobel.

It's the fascinating story of how John Harrison finally solved the problem of determining longitude at sea after the British Government in 1714 awarded a prize of 20,000 pounds to the first person to solve the mystery of determining longitude. It took Harrison 40 years to claim the prize, after much skulduggery. A great read.
 
It is a good question , what to do with a library of say 100- 200+ books, when there now just taking up space?

Some boating classics , some "how to", some rare , but all heavy.
 
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