Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Darwin: a minor triumph; books read


        After two hours labor and at the cost of only a broken fingernail, I have reconfigured GANNET’s interior into passage mode and stowed provisions for more than two months.  I even know where everything is.  Sort of.  And there is still room for me and the dinghy and anchor and rode that have still to come aboard.  This is a triumph, however minor.
        GANNET appears to be heeling slightly to port, which is all right.  That side figures to be to windward for several thousand miles.

———

         Although June is not quite over, I’m not going to finish another book before I leave and so publish the books read January—June 2016 now.

NOSTROMO   Joseph Conrad 
NORTH TO THE ORIENT   Anne Morrow Lindbergh
THE NUTMEG OF CONSOLATION   Patrick O’Brian
A SINGLE WAVE   Webb Chiles
THE TRUELOVE/CLARISSA OAKES   Patrick O’Bria
THE HORSE’S MOUTH   Joyce Cary
DEAD WAKE   Erik Larson
SOCCER IN SUN AND SHADOW   Eduardo Galeano
SHADOWS   Webb Chiles
THE WINE DARK SEA   Patrick O’Brian
THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY   Richard C. Morais
HOTEL FLORIDA   Amanda Vaill
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS   Ernest Hemingway
THE PARIS WIFE   Paula McLain
THE COMMODORE   Patrick O’Brian
THE YEAR OF LEAR   James Shapiro
MIDDLEMARCH   George Eliot
THE YELLOW ADMIRAL   Patrick O’Brian
THE HUNDRED DAYS   Patrick O’Brian
21   Patrick O’Brian
IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY   Bill Bryson
TYPHOON   Joseph Conrad
CHILDREN OF THE DAYS   Eduardo Galeano
THE INVENTION OF NATURE   Andrea Wulf
HISTORY’S GREAT SHOWDOWNS   Edwin S. Grosvenor
SHERIFF’S BLOOD   John Legg
DEEP SURVIVAL   Laurence Gonzales
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH   Richard Flanagan
THE SOUTHPAW   Mark Harris
DICTATOR   Robert Harris
CIRCLING THE SUN   Paula McLain
WAR MUSIC   Christopher Logue
RED ROAD FROM STALINGRAD   Mansur Abdulin
IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW   Mark Helprin
WESSEX TALES   Thomas Hardy

I have commented on some of these as I read them.
DEEP SURVIVAL is study of how some people survive extreme situations, while some don’t.  I learned that even among survivors, I am unusual.  I consider that I have been on the edge of survival three times:  during much of the five month passage in EGREGIOUS around Cape Horn; for the two weeks adrift after CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE pitch-poled; and for the twenty-six hour swim after I sank RESURGAM.  Unlike most of those Laurence Gonzales writes about, I did not hear a voice, which perhaps should be capitalized; I did not pray; and two of the three times, I had no one to live for.
If in reading the list you are struck by the title, SHERIFF’S BLOOD, it was one of an ebook of five great westerns offered by BookBud for a couple of dollars.  Not great, but good when I wanted something that held my interest and didn’t require much concentration when the sailing was difficult.
         The best of these are those by Joseph Conrad; those by me; those by Eduardo Galeano; those by Patrick O'Brian, if you get into the series; FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, though it is flawed—Hemingway couldn’t write about sex and perhaps not about love, but the ending is perfect; THE HORSE'S MOUTH; MIDDLEMARCH; SOUTHPAW, though perhaps only for Americans; WAR MUSIC; WESSEX TALES.