Book recomendation

Last sunday I read "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy. Apparently he wrote "No Country for Old Men". Didn't see that movie, or read that book.

I wouldn't call it good, but it was an easy read and I knocked it out in an afternoon. Basically a guy and his son are trying to get to the coast. The world has burned for some unexplained reason and the last remaining survivors are barely alive. There's some cannabalism, and a good glimpse at what people are capable of, both for good and bad, in possibly the worst imaginable scenario. Even though I don't think it was really a good book, I'm glad I read it for some reason. 287 pages, big font, basic dialog. If it were any easier to read it would have been a picture book.

Anyone else read it?

Not read that.

Here's a set for your Sundays that you might enjoy:

Aubrey/Maturin series

And on sailing too. The recent movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe was a compiled version of the books. All 5,500 pages. Knock that out in an afternoon.

Another new book to read, that is not only a best seller, but informative is "The 10 Big Lies About America" by Michael Medved. Before you discount Medved as just another Talk Show Host, and Movie Critic, consider that this is a well documented work of non fiction. In addition to his History Degree from Yale, Medved also was in Yale Law School with both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and knew them well. This is a quick read, and you will learn alot.

Caleb Tarleton

You might like The Deathbird by Harlen Ellison.

Don't get me started... I have enjoyed almost 20 books in the last 12 months. I am now reading Templar type stuff along with John Toland's book Adolf Hitler.

If you want an easy read go with The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It’s one of the best books ever written in the English language and you could say it’s an easy read because that’s just the way Hemingway communicates.
If you want something difficult go with The Master and Margarita but it’s no better than The Old Man and the Sea.

"Big Two Hearted River".

"TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST" by Richard Henry Dana Jr. a great classic and true account of being at sea

Check out Bernard Cornwell's books especially his books about sailing. I loved the one titled "Stormchild", his historical fiction is excellent as well.

Fred

Hey Karl try the book "First You have To Row a little Boat" by Richard Bode.It's a nice quick read,you might even pick up a few sailing (as well as life) lessons.Anyone that sails will find this a great pick up book that you can reread numerous times.I especially like the part where he talks about teaching his kids to sail,I can relate to that.

I recently read "A Voyage For Madmen" by Peter Nichols. It is about the 1968 Golden Globe Race. It was a contest to see who could be the first to do a non-stop, solo circumnavigation. It was the best book I have in a while. They just did a movie based on it.
Staying with the sailing theme, "The Proving Ground" by G. Bruce Knecht is really good. It is about the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race which encountered bad weather.

My favorites are the Gunslinger Series of Dark Tower by Stephen King..! This is not the eerie King, but really deep stuff.
Also really loved the Tolkien Trilogy.
Marly and Me is really funny if you are dog owner, but don't read the last part unless you are prepared to blubber like a baby.
Rick

I loved that book. Lent it to Rick to read when he was on a trip, and he lost it. So I need to buy another copy.

great book,

Mary the book is advertised on Amazon.com for $4.95

"South with Endurance" is a great book. Those guys were hardcore. Its amazing to think what folks used to do in the cold without all the modern winter gear. "Ghosts of Everest" is also great, the search for Mallory and Irvine.

Return in The Wake
Fastnet Force 10
Fatal Storm

Story of the first catamaran ever to round Cape Horn.
"Children of Cape Horn" by Rosie Swale. I haven't read it, but I really must, because we owned and lived on one of the same catamarans (an Oceanic, designed by Bill O'Brien). Here is a review:

Hi Mary, Rosie is an amazing person. I remember first reading about her when my sister and brother in law were setting of with their 5 and 2 year old on an Atlantic crossing on a 35' Warram Cat in 1977. You should start with "Rosie Darling". It was written after "Children of Cape Horn", but covers the early part of her life. After "Children of Cape Horn", things went down a bit for her. She toured boat shows trying to sell her books and did certain other things which I won't go into.
She picked herself up and is now known as Rosie Swale-Pope and has just completed a "Run" around the world.
An amazing woman !

Thanks, Dermot, I will try to get both of the books. I have some pictures of our Oceanic somewhere. I will have to scan them and post them someday. It was a great liveaboard boat, and I could easily imagine going around the world on it -- slowly, but comfortably and safely.

Oy deserved better.

The Walking Dude had it coming.

Loved the Gunslinger but the ending wow Didn't care for that.
Long live Walter.

A personal favorite is: Adrift I don't remember the author's name, but he still holds the record for survival at sea.

You might like "The life of Pi" then. A kid survives 200+ days on a life raft. Pretty crazy story when you get to the end.

Phil!

Return in the Wake by Cathy Hawkins?

Which of those three was the best read? Sounds like Fastnet from a glance...

Got me interested. Give me a review!

"Tinkerbelle" by Robert Manry. Story of his 1965 voyage across the Atlantic in a 13 1/2-foot sailboat, the smallest ever to have made the crossing at the time.

JJ,

It was a very long time now since I read these books, some around 20yrs.
I went through a phase of reading about sailing disasters so I could learn from the mistakes of
others while I was builing a 32ft cat.

Return in the Wake- was a great read.
If you ever dreamed about taking on the European race cct in a multi you built yourself
and doing well it is a great read. Ian and Kathy pitchpoling of their Twiggy Tri in the North sea
and their survival and eventual rescue was good. How they built their next tri while one working and the other
building etc was also touching.

I learnt a lot from Fastnet Force 10 which claimed 15 lives. It was a good read and would
help me from making many of their mistakes that needlessly cost lives.

Fatal Storm on the other hand was about the 98 Hobart Race that cost 6 lives.
It was an extremely well written and captivating book to read.

The reality of the conditions experienced by the crews and even the danger experienced by helicopter crews executing
rescues in 80ft waves was chilling. That book taught me that to save your life in that situation....
just don't be there in the first place.

How they only lost 6 lives is amazing. My guess, they learnt a lot from the 79 Fastnet race.
Interestingly, right through Fastnet Force 10 they keep saying the conditions were so bad they could be compared to those off
the south east Australian coast. While they were bad they were nothing like experinced in the 98 Hobart Race.
Had the same mistakes been made in 98 as 79 they would have lost
2or 3 times those lost in 79.

I think they are all worth reading. But Retrun in the wake and Fastnet Force 10 don't leave you with the feeling of helplessness you get from reading Fatal Storm.

Regards,
Phill

Not sailing but water related is "raising the dead" or "Diving into Darkness" by Phillip Finch.

Its the story of the deep cave diver Robert Shaws fatal attempt to recover a body in one of the deepest caves ever attempted, 900 feet. An amazing twist at the end, and a real insight into this sport.

As a taster there is a youtube of the dive, not for the faint of heart...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mF4iFJ-G74o

Gareth

"SURVIVE THE SAVAGE SEA" By DOUGLAS ROBERTSON A true account of survival. In 1972 this family sailing in the Pacific in a 43 foot schooner was hit by killer whales and sank in 60 seconds

Sailing Around the World Alone- By Joshua Slocum, historical and interesting.

Kirt

Can't remember the title exactly, but maybe it was "into thin air", about the Everest climb that went terribly wrong. The writer was one of the climbers who survived.

I liked the fact that it takes some of the glamour off the "let's climb Everest" motto, and shows the true consequense of the large masses of people out to climb this mountain. Who thought the sanitation would be so bad at the base area?

Another good sailing story. On US SAILING Website.
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O.K Karl,we will expect a book report on all the books that have been listed.

In the last probably month and a half I've read at least 6-7 books, most were 3-400 pages. I've got a stack of 10 books that I'd like to read before the ice retreats back to hell. I've got a full plate already. The last book in que is "ATLAS SHRUGGED", by Aun Rand. I'm a little fuzzy on what its about, its 1070 pages, really small print, and was handed to me by a good friend who told me its right up my alley.

Does anyone on here read anything not related to water in some way? I'm surprised at the number recomendations that are sailing/boat related to others.

This is a sailing forum, so most people assume the purpose of the thread is to recommend books related to sailing. Doesn't mean we don't read all kinds of other books. Doesn't even mean we actually read the sailing books we recommend. As far as I am concerned, in general, sailing is a pretty boring subject to read about.

This isn't the Minnesota Dairy Farmers Co-Op forum? What?! Just kidding Mary, I just figured there would be more in the way of non-sailing related books. A book dedicated to just the sailing aspect would be really boring. Informative perhaps, but not a real page burner.

hey I think Pete is recommending anything by T.S. Eliot

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer, A good book, but if you enjoyed it you ought to read the book by the Russia guide that Krakauer trashes in the book. His side of the story is rather interesting as well. The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev.

This guy has written a huge number of excellent books on a range of topics. If you like historical fiction he will have you busy for a while. He covers history from the building of Stonehinge, King Authur, English French wars, to modern day sailing. I think he has written about 50 books.

Thanks for reviews, Phil. Ordering Fastnet.

Edit: Just finished The Armada by Garrett Mattingly. Had to force myself to finish it. Bit dry and mostly about politics of England and Spain.

The end was pretty dramatic. Talk about going on the water unprepared! The Spanish started running out of food, water, powder, shot, and all supplies about the time they got halfway up the channel. Then sailed around Ireland to get home and avoid a rematch with the English fleet (who were running out of everything too) and cracked up most of the fleet on the West Coast! Then in port, a sizable number of sailors who survived died of hunger and disease because no one was ready for them to come home! Instead of being a great battle, it was more planning gone wrong.

Fastnet, Force 10 was a great read. A good book. More like a good history than is Fatal Storm -- which is partway read.

Wish there was more of Fastnet. Got real feel for being there, which glad I wasn't. Two things stick in mind: a cubic foot of seawater weighs 64 pounds, the author says! That puts a whole new meaning on "wave piercing" bows and how it feels to get hit by a 40-foot wave driving along at 20 mph.

Second, some of the larger boats had chefs. Kinda blows the rough sea sailor image, having the personal chef along.

I was walking along a quayside a couple of years ago and realised that I was stood next to 'Grimalkin'. It made me go into a cold sweat for a second, but i guess someone still loves her, it wasn't her fault after all.

"Just After Sunset" short stories by Stephen King.

Duma Key also King but this ones down south on the water.

That must have been eerie. I noticed that Nick Ward, one of the two left on Grimalkin, has a book out called Left for Dead (I think). Hasn't gotten good reviews...

For those of you in Aus -- after reading Fatal Storm, I think that you need to rename the Bass Strait. How about "Stay Outta This Strait". Will keep up with Hobart next year...

Book's most incredible part was where 42-foot, nine-ton yacht got caught in the curl of a wave (after being rolled and dismasted by a previous wave) and surfed it for about 400 yards. The man at the helm, who was just keeping steerage way, said the boat was shooting the curl going "bap-bap-bap" along the top of the wave, which was in the 60-80 foot range.