Here's a list of some favorites. Not all about
living aboard and cruising, but mostly about the sea, boats, ships, etc:
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 (cruisers discover German pre WW II buildup) Erskine Childers
The Cruel Sea (true stories - escorting convoys during WWII) Nicholas Monsarrat
Sea of Thunder Evan Thomas
Sea of Glory Nathaniel Philbrick.
Alaska James Michener
also: Tales of the
South Pacific
Empire of
Blue Water Stephen Talty
Jack Aubrey series (Master and Commander, etc) Patrick O’Brian
also: The Golden Ocean & The Unknown Shore (prior to Aubrey series)
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
The Sea Wolf Jack London
Alaska Blues, and others (travel and
fishing in SE Alaska) Joe Upton
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
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)
Blues John Hersey
River Horse William Least Heat Moon
Grey Seas Under (Remarkable rescues on high seas of the north Atlantic) Farley Mowat
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
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
The Blue Bear Lynn Schooler