Books you liked that enhanced the cruise experience

[SwissMyst]

On the "HAL Secrets" thread there was a mention of an Alaska Inside Passage book that really enhanced the posters experience on that cruise. So this seemed like a good basis for a new thread. Any books that offered insights into the areas you have cruised, besides the standard guidebooks that boosted the travel pleasure to that area?

Caribbean: A Brief History of the Caribbean - From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present by Jan Rogozinski ISBN 0-452-28193-8
(ISBN numbers are handy because some times different countries publish different titles for the same book)

We were not prepared for the unique history of this area as we were approaching the Caribbean primarily as a travel poster, warm weather tourist destination. But the rich history remains evident from the ship's ballast that one still sees as blue, yellow and burned brick street pavings and building materials, to Alexander Hamilton's birth place and his mother's jail cell, to open waters and vistas that remain unchanged from the time Columbus first traveled in this area over 500 years ago.

This book briefly takes you from past to present island by island, historical epoch by epoch and opened our own eyes to see there was more in this region besides the warm water and dazzling beaches .... and duty free shopping. Some good, some not so good, but an in-depth context made this trip so much more than we originally expected.

[tbrein]

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough certainly enhanced my Panama Canal transit.
I would not have enjoyed it half as much if I hadn't read the book
Terri

[Hlitner]

Just a thought, but the book that enhances my cruising experience is whatever book I happen to be reading while happily in residence in my comfy deck chair :)

Hank

[CtheW0rld]

several by john maxtone-graham, about ships and the history of travel by ships.

[KirkNC]

I enjoyed The Fires of Vesuvius prior to our visit to Pompeii last summer. It really made the visit come to life.

Kirk

[Copper10-8]

These are pretty good (and funny) reads:

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[Baystate]

I enjoyed reading James Michener's Caribbean before our cruise last year. It's an historically accurate novel with a mixture of real and fictional characters that starts sometime before Columbus lands until the 1980s.

[Chmielel]

I also enjoy the Path Between the Seas for the Panama Cannel Cruise.

Another enjoyable read:

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz

Was a great book to read for the South Pacific Treasures and New Zealand cruise.

[surfsidemary]

Bertrand Russell's The Problem of China provided a 1920's perspective that was very interesting to read while experiencing the Chinese ports.

I came across it in Kindle's free classics. One thing I realized is that my British missionary great-grandparents meant well but did the Oriental cultures no favor.

[AZNative2000]

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough certainly enhanced my Panama Canal transit.
I would not have enjoyed it half as much if I hadn't read the book
TerriCompletely agree. It was a long read but worth it.:)

[jimmy2x]

Tales of the South Pacific by Mitchner

The Bounty Trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall

[bcd2010]

I enjoyed reading James Michener's Caribbean before our cruise last year. It's an historically accurate novel with a mixture of real and fictional characters...

Ditto Michener's Hawaii if you're headed that way.

[ricki]

Endurance, Shakleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing for our Antarctia cruise.

Ricki

[bobalink]

Before we went to Alaska, we read "Alaska" by James Michener.
It was so good, that we read "Poland" before we went on our Baltic cruise!

[SwissMyst]

Some great suggestions here, including whatever book one is reading (or .. ahem .. shading their eyes with :rolleyes:) while lounging on the deck chair.

One of the best books I read was from the Oosterdam Library on the History of Italian Cooking, not a recipe book but a true culinary history of what people on the Italian peninsula ate over the milleniums of its history, and how their present culinary traditions that we now know as "Italian" food only recently evolved. Fascinating and so glad the cruise lasted long enough to get it finished.

Yup, "Cruise Confidential" is a good, racy read.

[sansterre]

I love this thread because the only time I read a book is on a cruise. Usually I enjoy a book that has some basis in history.
For example, anyone coming to Florida should read "A time remembered" - based on the life of several generations of a family 1850-1950.
For transatlantic sailing, "The Immigrants" comes to mind.
This thread just told me what book to read on our upcoming Panama cruise. Thanks all, and keep the ideas flowing.

[schoolinmy3]

Our cruise last May stopped in Guernsey, really a delightful island. I read on cc about a novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and as it was based on history of the island during the German occupation it really enhanced my enjoyment of our visit there.
Diane

[secretcastle]

The Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders. This is a book written by the woman who was a cruise director, that went on to inspire teh Love Boat tv series.

[SwissMyst]

......
For transatlantic sailing, "The Immigrants" comes to mind.
...........Thanks all, and keep the ideas flowing.

What a great insight as we face a TA and many sea days --- good to take that time to get into the mindset of the early immigrants facing those same seas, but not knowing what would wait them on the other side. Thanks.

Thanks also for this tip: Looked up John Maxtone-Graham and his "The Only Way to Cross" looks terrific and probably a source for a lot of the nostalgia some HAL passengers try to hang on to, including me, about the grand days of transatlantic sea travel. When I was a kid one of my favorite thing was to see the advertisments for the new passenger ships that would come out in the National Geographic magazines. I had them all memorized feature by feature and would follow in horror the news stories of their dark sea crashes -- all of which ushered in their demise as plane travel also too over. But those chilling stories of the Andrea Doria, as well as the final sailing of the SS France all got into my bones.

One book that was very popular among our UK travelers on the MV Discovery on the Singapore-Mauritius Indian Ocean route was 'Old Filth" ( which stood Failed in London, try Hong Kong) that got into the soul of those expatriate kids raised somewhere out in the Empire, but still nominally British.

[bepsf]

I enjoyed reading this enroute to Hawaii:
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[wingit]

One thing I've always enjoyed about cruising is finding a book in the ship's library. Invariably it's a book I would not have otherwise read. I do think it's fun to browse through the library and experience the serendipity of discovering and reading a book that engages me.

[Copper10-8]

Uno mas!;) As a footnote, some folks might not want to read a book like this while on a cruise ship:cool: This, however, is an excellent read as far as what happened to Prinsendam I (1973-1980) and her pax + crew on 04 OCT 80 in the cold waters off Alaska

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12020000/12024588.jpg

[sansterre]

Also for the Hawaii cruise, Molokai, a great read about the leper colony and the search for a cure.

[igraf]

I particularly enjoyed reading Barry Golson's "Gringos in Paradise" while on a Mexico Riviera cruise:

http://www.gringosinparadise.net/

This book is/was in the Oosterdam library.

igraf

ps Not to be confused with Isla Mujeres: Gringo in Paradise

[kazu]

any book I am reading on my balcony as I hear the waves is a book that will enhance my cruise experience ;)

[Fear-the-turtle]

For a very interesting history of the cruise industry:

Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes, and Showdowns That Built America's Cruise-Ship Empires by Kristoffer Garin

[sswitenki]

I read the path between the seas and LOVED it. Very interesting and great for anyone thinking of a canal cruise

[traveling mama]

For women most likely: "OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY" by Cornelia Otis Skinner. Charming, light and fun! There is also a super movie if you can find it w/ Gayle Russell and Diana Lind....remember them?

[frbob]

A great book of extreme exploration, courage, leadership and survival titled "South", by Sir Ernest Shackleton...a first-hand account of the ill-fated voyage of the Endurance in Antarctica. An absolute "must read" for those interested in adventure cruising.

[mamaofami]

any book I am reading on my balcony as I hear the waves is a book that will enhance my cruise experience ;)

I so relate to that. Any book I'm reading while watching the waves enhances my cruise experience. Last cruise, I read "Cutting for Stone" on my Kindle.

[lastlook]

Currently reading "The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt, in advance of our cruise out of Venice this May. Very interesting reading for anyone who has been to, or who will be visiting Venice.

[sansterre]

I just got The Path between the Seas - can't wait to start reading before we get to the Panama Canal!
For Canadian cruise, I recommend Anne of Green Gables.
Any suggestions for Norway/North Cape/Vikings?

[fann1sh]

Great thread, great list.

For Alaska, "Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush", by Pierre Berton. Page turner non-fiction, as riveting as Michener.

If you visit Dawson on cruise tours 1, 2, 3, 4, or 27 it's a must read!

Even if you're only cruising to Ketchikan, and taking the White Pass train paralleling the old "Path of '98", you should consider snagging this from your public library. The story of "Dead Horse Gulch" brought me to tears.

First published 1958, revised in 1970's, reissued 2001. Easily available on Amazon.ca. Resellers only on Amazon.com.

[SmokinActuary]

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Not that I have sailed the Pacific but this book is an excellent read.

[judynorth]

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough certainly enhanced my Panama Canal transit.
I would not have enjoyed it half as much if I hadn't read the book
Terri

A must-read before a Panama Canal transit! It is a fascinating book.

[whosyer12]

The Kama Sutra really enhanced our recent cruise!

[ricki]

I so relate to that. Any book I'm reading while watching the waves enhances my cruise experience. Last cruise, I read "Cutting for Stone" on my Kindle.


Not to hijack the thread, but wasn't that an incredible book, Carol?

Ricki

[ricki]

I just got The Path between the Seas - can't wait to start reading before we get to the Panama Canal!
For Canadian cruise, I recommend Anne of Green Gables.
Any suggestions for Norway/North Cape/Vikings?


You might enjoy "The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman" by
Nancy Marie Brown.

Ricki