Category Archives: Seafaring

“As the sun pulls away from the shore …

Posted on January 7, 2020 by

… and our ship sinks slowly in the west ….” I finished Moby Dick more than a week ago, on my last night on the road home from a holiday family visit in Oklahoma. The wide horizons of the Midwest … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Shore leave ends

Posted on November 23, 2019 by

Last night I finished The Secret Commonwealth (Vol 2 of Pullman’s follow-up series to His Dark Materials) and sent it back (virtually, and virtuously) to the NYPL. By now, another patient reader has begun this dark and compelling tale. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Am revising, Fantasy, NaNoWriMo, Seafaring, short stories | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Am writing, am reading, am really really busy

Posted on November 12, 2019 by

12 days into November, and I’m on track to finish NaNoWriMo well ahead of the deadline. It’s amazing how much I can accomplish when I have to. The reason I have to: I start a 2½-week trip on 24 November, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Am writing, NaNoWriMo, Seafaring | Tagged | 8 Comments

The dark sea beckons

Posted on October 26, 2019 by

Chris at Calmgrove has announced this on his blog, so I guess I can’t back out now: He and I are going to spend the November days after the end of Witch Week reading and blogging about Melville’s monster-book, Moby-Dick, … Continue reading →

Posted in Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged | 4 Comments

R.I.P. XIV, part 2

Posted on October 18, 2019 by

As promised, a second post for R(eaders) I(mbibing) P(eril) XIV, a celebration of any genre that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Four books, 2 of which also fit into my celebration of Herman Melville’s 200th birthday … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Biography, Fantasy, Gothic, Mystery, RIP, Seafaring | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Everything is connected

Posted on August 28, 2019 by

Another post in my continuing salute to Herman Melville, on the occasion of his 200th birthday. For today, I’ve selected an unlikely book, Julian Barnes’ 1989 novel, The History of the World in 10½ Chapters (Borzoi/Knopf). This was the book … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Science fiction, Seafaring | Tagged | 2 Comments

Lost at sea

Posted on August 13, 2019 by

Although I’ve been neither lost nor officially “at sea” since my last post, I’ve recently returned from a month away from city life, with 24/7 ocean views of sand, sea, sail, and sky. I watched the island-studded ocean, read, ate, … Continue reading →

Posted in Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged , | 9 Comments

A well-governed shark

Posted on June 23, 2019 by

It’s time for another progress report on my reading-the-sea project. For this post, I had planned to include notes on Melville’s Billy Budd, but I’ve been busy having fun instead — fun reading other books, that is, so BB will … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, History, Seafaring | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

Quiet Backwaters

Posted on May 30, 2019 by

The novels featured in today’s brief post (another for my Melville bicentennial celebration) are set on rivers. Two are classics, and the third deserves to be. I’ve read all three before, but they fit so neatly into my on-the-water theme … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Animal tales, Humorous, Seafaring | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The voyage so far

Posted on May 16, 2019 by

As promised, here’s the first of what may be several updates on my tour of books set on water in honor of Herman Melville’s 200th birthday. Initially I had planned to make these reviews brief, but, well, you know … … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Classic, Fan fiction, History, Seafaring, Travel | Tagged , | 19 Comments