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 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.
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.