An Introduction to my Library
I've always been interested in stories of cruising and exploration aboard boats - sail and power. I also have a fondness for old books (my wife might say it's a mania). Over the years, as I've collected books about my interest, I've become increasingly focused on the adventures of a small group of men, primarily British, who wrote of their experiences sailing, rowing, or motoring in and around Europe during the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. I find their descriptions of a world that is largely gone quite romantic. One of my great dreams is to spend a few years following in some of their footsteps by small boat.
Additionally, these men were also often artists - indeed that was usually the norm rather than the exception. I enjoy this artwork and will include some of it here. I'll also include references to it that I find online (though these are few and far between outside of one or two artists).
I'm in the process of cataloging my book collection. I use Collectorz.com Book Collector as my database. The lists presented here are exported from that tool. Given the cross-over topics within some of the books you may find books listed in more than one of the catagories below.
- Small Boat Cruising - the mainstay of my growing library
- The Yachting Monthly - particularly in the years prior to World War One
- WoodenBoat - the magazine for wooden boat builders and aficionados everywhere
- The Raids on Zeebrugge and Ostend, 1918
- World War One Naval History - including the post-Armistice Occupation of the Rhine
- Patrick O'Brian, Nelson, and the Napoleonic Era
- Woodworking, Tools, Shopwork, etc.
- Arthur Watts
- Farming for Self-Sufficiency - not boats, but I find it interesting
- Books I'm Looking For