Best article or book you've read recently

Hi everyone, I'm travelling soon and am looking for some good reads to take with me. What's your favorite boating article(s) or book(s) that you've read lately?
Thanks for suggestions!

Hands down, my favorite "boating" books have been Robert Perry's Perry on Design volumes. These are groupings of his Sailing Magazine columns over the years and there are at least six volumes That I know of.
Great fun to read, I learn something with every review and his style is entertaining.
Of course it is all sailboat designs...
Bruce

1. Sailing alone around the world (Joshua Slocum)
2. The Captain (Jan de Hartog)
3. All of the Hornblower books (C.S. Forester)

That should get you started.

Ah yes, the Hornblower series!
The Hiscocks books about sailing in their Wanderer sailboats, John Guzwell Trekka around the world and anything written about Miles and Beryl Smeeton.
I also loved A Life in Boats by Waldo Howland, the story of the Concordia yawl.
Bruce

I love the Tristan Jones books. Some say they are novels others say he did all he said but they are a great read either way. Anything by Jan de Hartog. A book I just read called the Tattie Lads by Ian Dear, about ocean rescue tugs out of GB in WWII. Very good book. Most anything by Farley Mowat! I loved A Whale for the Killing, both his tug books, The Boat that wouldn't Float, the Dog who wouldn't Be. All good stuff.
I corresponded with Ian Dear briefly to offer a correction to his book. He agreed his info on the particular subject was faulty and said later eds. would show the correction. Amenable chap.

Almost anything by Farley Mowat but especially The boat that wouldn't float!!! Never laughed so hard as parts of that book.
Bruce

jwnall said:

1. Sailing alone around the world (Joshua Slocum)
2. The Captain (Jan de Hartog)
3. All of the Hornblower books (C.S. Forester)

That should get you started.

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Strongly agree with "jwnall" about the above, and would add Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. Set aboard a Royal Navy corvette on North Atlantic convoy duty during WW II, its narrative is authentic, and its prose lyrical. Have re-read four or five times.

The Cruel Sea was also made into one of the best movies of all time.

At the risk of sounding like a wise guy, Chapmans Piloting. I've an older coffee table sized one that wouldn't travel well but I enjoy thumbing through it and cherry picking sections to read.

Reading the list that is developing reminds me of the days before the iPad...
when people still read actual books!
Bruce

CPseudonym said:

At the risk of sounding like a wise guy, Chapmans Piloting.

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If I didn't know you better Craig, I would think that you had no romance in your soul at all. Along that line, guess I would also recommend "Marine Diesel Engines," by Nigel Calder. Good for putting you back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night. (Also a very good book to have onboard -- but I thought the OP wanted something with just a wee more plot to it.)

Farley Mowat's "Sea of Slaughter" was also a very good read and very enlightening.

CPseudonym said:

At the risk of sounding like a wise guy, Chapmans Piloting. I've an older coffee table sized one that wouldn't travel well but I enjoy thumbing through it and cherry picking sections to read.

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My uncle a tugboat man gave my brother and I copies for Xmas in 1962, still have it.

Not boating related but currently reading the latest Mitch Rapp book, no longer written by Flynn, but the new guy Kyle Mills is holding his own. Title, Order to Kill.

Jack London, Steinbeck, and a more recent book worth reading, Ship of Gold by Gary Kinder.

Rebel112r said:

Not boating related but currently reading the latest Mitch Rapp book, no longer written by Flynn, but the new guy Kyle Mills is holding his own. Title, Order to Kill.

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Didn't know that. I thought the Rapp series died with Flynn. Sad that was, so young and such a good writer.

Well, the first 20 have to be the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. Then any Joseph Conrad (okay, maybe not Heart of Darkness)

AlaskaProf said:

Well, the first 20 have to be the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. Then any Joseph Conrad (okay, maybe not Heart of Darkness

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Yup. For those that enjoy good English prose and the history of the British Navy, O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series simply can't be beat.

I will have to try an O'Brian novel again. I could not find the joy the last time I attempted one but that was 20 years ago, perhaps I've matured enough to give it a go.
Bruce

Bruce B said:

I will have to try an O'Brian novel again. I could not find the joy the last time I attempted one but that was 20 years ago, perhaps I've matured enough to give it a go.
Bruce

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Yeah, I could never get into it either. Not sure why. The seamanship is just fine, but it just does not have the spark that the Hornblower series has. And it may be just me.

Well now you've done it! I have just downloaded a sample of Master and Commander on my iPad. I think I'm off for a little recreational reading now...
Bruce

jwnall said:

Yeah, I could never get into it either. Not sure why. The seamanship is just fine, but it just does not have the spark that the Hornblower series has. And it may be just me.

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Same here - I expected to be swept away by the O'Brien series, but none have ever clicked with me. OTOH, I can pick up any old Hornblower and begin re-reading with contentment.

jwnall said:

If I didn't know you better Craig, I would think that you had no romance in your soul at all. Along that line, guess I would also recommend "Marine Diesel Engines," by Nigel Calder. Good for putting you back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night. (Also a very good book to have onboard -- but I thought the OP wanted something with just a wee more plot to it.)

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Believe it or not I've been thumbing through that one on my lunchtime the last week. What can I say, I enjoy a bit of light reading between commentaries.

One of my all time favorite books is THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by Erskine Childers. Every time I pick it up and start to read it, its like saying hello to an old friend. Its a classic combination sea story and spy story. Anyone else ever read it?

78puget-trawler said:

One of my all time favorite books is THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by Erskine Childers. Every time I pick it up and start to read it, its like saying hello to an old friend. Its a classic combination sea story and spy story. Anyone else ever read it?

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Good call. Yep, read and re-read it, and recommended it to several friends (one of whom absconded years ago with my copy). It's kind of hard to find these days, else I'd likely have replaced it on my bookshelf.

Amazon.com is your friend. Bookfinder.com is where I go for hard to find books. A pretty entertaining movie was made of this story too some years ago, now available on DVD.

Must say I am surprised nobody has mentioned Hemingway yet. He and Pillar are two of my heroes.

Well now you mention it of course! I most enjoy books about Hemingway, perhaps even more than his own books. HEMINGWAYS BOATS is very good, as is THE HEMINGWAY PATROLS, about his German sub chasing days. Lest we forget one of the best tales of all that also made a fine movie, THE SAND PEBBLES by Richard McKenna. As fine a modern story as ever written. Part sea story, political novel and love story. Great book!


Oh and his boat Pilar, one L.

CPseudonym said:

Must say I am surprised nobody has mentioned Hemingway yet. He and Pillar are two of my heroes.

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Was about to suggest Hemingway, Emerson and Melville. Sam Clemens is always fun, too.

Just finished reading "The Curve of Time".