"Required" Reading

[Jfelkins]

I love to read and have read several sailing stories but am wondering what sailing must reads I'm missing. What books do you think every sailors library should contain?

I'm referring to stories, non fiction and fiction.

 

[kloudie1]

Lynn/Larry Pardee.. several books
Herb Payson, "Blown Away" and "You Can't Blow Home Again"
Robb White, "Flotsom and Jetsom.... "

 

[Stu Jackson]

You could do a search on the word "books" on this message board, lots of discussions.

Tristan Jones is always a good read. Great cruising stories from the east coast of the UK - anything by Maurice Griffiths" The Magic of the Swatchways.

 

[Freedom77]

Nonfiction - Sailing alone around the World by Joshua Slocum, Dove by Robin Lee Graham, A World of My Own by Sir Robyn Knox Johnson, First person to sail around the world nonstop in 1969. If you like just plain fun read all 13 volumes of Horatio Hornblower by C.S. Forrester. He also wrote the African Queen. Also the Bolitho saga by Alexander Kent. Also Patrick O'Brien stuff. Movie Master & Commander with Russell Crowe came from these. If I think of anything else I'll send you a note. Fair Winds, Old Salt...

 

[kpgraci]

I'm currently reading Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn by Webb Chiles, it's can be downloaded as a free PDF.

 

[svenusa]

anything by Tristan Jones, start with his "a boyhood at sea".

Joshua Slocums Sailing alone around the world..

 

[Ed Schenck]

Not exactly sailing related but all about the sea and lots of fun are Jimmy Buffet novels. I also vote for O'Brian and Chiles.

 

[Roger Long]

My current favorite and the funniest book about boating (and life) I can recall reading:

Flotsam and Jetsam by Robb White.

Just don't try to read it while anyone else in the boat is sleeping

 

[dscribner]

James L Nelson - Always a good bet

 

[Ross]

They are long out of print but if you can find books by Joseph Lincoln you will enjoy them. History books and novels about the river pirates on the mississippi system are entertaining.

 

[higgs]

Farley Mowat: the Boat That Wouldn't Float
Tomalin & Hall: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst

 

[sailormanbigd]

Sea Wolf

Ah, a must is SEA WOLF by Jack London

 

[Ken]

Dewey Lambdin and Dudley Pope

 

[Tim R.]

"A Voyage for Madmen"

 

[RECESS]

Aubrey and Maturin series by O'Brian was a great read. It was the basis for the movie Master and Commander.

It may be the Social Studies teacher in me, but I also loved it was historical fiction set in the Napoleon wars.

 

[jackhartjr]

Ken, can you provide a link for the free pdf download for that book?
Thanks a ton.
Jack

 

[ffaubert]

This should work.
http://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/books_files/STORM_PASSAGE.pdf

 

[Stu Jackson]

Thanks, Frank, will read on the airplane on a X-country trip next week. Good find, thanks for sharing.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Here is one on my shelf that I nearly forgot, a really good read: http://www.sheridanhouse.com/catalog/travel/wanderer.html .

I would like to find a book about Geraldo Rivera's 70-foot ketch Voyager. I think it originally belonged to the boss of my old company, TJ Watson of IBM. And I think both of these sailors have made some amazing voyages. There must be a book or two.

 

[Joe]

"Maiden Voyage" by Tania Aebi
"Sailing Alone Around the World" by Joshua Slocum
"Two Years Before the Mast" Richard Henry Dana

and the following are British Navy sagas during the Napoleonic era:

The "Richard Delancy" series by C. Northcote Parkinson
The "Nathaniel Drinkwater" series by Richard Woodman