Boating is a wonderful way to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. While on the water, you are guaranteed pure relaxation. After all there are no cars, traffic, rush hour, and deadlines to think about.
Make your boating holiday even more relaxing by bringing a book with you. And it would be fun to get something that matches your holiday. Since you’re going boating, why not pick a book that has to do with being at sea?
In this list, you’ll find books about boating and adventures in the water, perfect for your boating vacation. So, choose from this list and lose yourself between the pages of these great reads as you set sail.
What to Read on a Boating Holiday
#1 Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart
Lake Success is written by a New York Times bestselling author, Gary Shteyngart. It centres around the life of hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen who is deeply stressed by the SEC investigation.
When Cohen’s three-year-old son got diagnosed with autism, he decided to run away and went on a cross country trip onboard a Greyhound bus. He left behind his wife to take care of their son but brought his favourite designer watches with him. On his journey across America, he decided to go to Texas, where his college girlfriend is, hoping for a second chance. Meanwhile, his wife, who he left in New York, ended up having an affair with a Guatemalan writer.
If your boating vacation includes doing a Texas River cruise, this would be a great book to have. In the book, Barry spent most of his days around El Paso, Texas, revelling in the suburban Texas lifestyle. It could therefore be the perfect book to read on a boating vacation to Texas.
#2 Casting Off by Emma Bamford
Casting Off is a book about a city girl who found happiness on the high seas. Written by Emma Bamford, who works for the Independent, it chronicles her decision to grab her life by the roots and reclaims her freedom by running to the sea and going with a stranger on a yacht cruise of Borneo.
Working as a journalist for the Independent, Emma got tired of the London rat race. At 31 years old, she struggles to get a date, and being surrounded by friends settling down into married life and having kids, she decided to leave and went on to an adventure of a lifetime. She ran away to the sea and joined a stranger and his cat on a yacht across Borneo.
Reflective yet self-deprecating and humorous, readers will share Emma’s excitement and fear of leaving a great job to venture into an unknown adventure. As you read through the pages, you’ll feel like you are with her as she travels to some of the world’s most exotic places, as she realises in the end what matters the most in life.
#3 Nightmare in Burgundy – Jean-Pierre Alaux
The Nightmare in Burgundy tells the story of the Winemaker Detective leaving his native Bordeaux for Burgundy. His aim was to fulfil his dream of going on a wine tasting trip across France’s wine-making regions.
As The Winemaker Detective travels between Beaune, Dijon, and Nuits-Saint-Georges, his journey turns into a troubling nightmare after stumbling into a mystery around messages coming from another period. Here, he was faced with questions like, what do these messages mean? Which dark secrets from the deep past are haunting Clos de Vougeot, a 12th-century castle built by Cistercian monks complete with wine cellars and wine presses?
When you’re heading to France and plan on taking an ultra luxury boat trip up the Burgundy Canal with a wine tasting tour, this would be a great book to take with you. The book is written by Jean-Pierre Alaux, a wine lover and Noël Balen, a music lover. They came up with the idea of the Winemaker Detective series when sharing a meal in 1996 paired with a glass of red wine.
#4 The Long Way Home – Stuart MacDonald
The Long Way Home is a book that follows the author, Stuart MacDonald, on his four-year sailing adventure. It’s filled with colourful descriptions of the places he came across, the characters he met, and his long voyages in the ocean.
Since he was young, MacDonald has dreamed of sailing away on his own. However, his career at sea and business often got in the way. Finally, when he reached the age of 64, he quit working and set off from Scotland. With no idea of how long he will be away or how far we will go, he reached the Caribbean and decided to sail towards the Panama Canal and into the Pacific before reaching New Zealand. After carefree cruising through the Pacific for two years, his journey got tougher, to the point that he almost gave up while in Australia.
This is a great book to read if you’re a big fan of sailing. And if you plan on doing cruises around New Zealand, this is the perfect book to get inspiration from.
# 5 The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
If you’re a wildlife lover, you should go for a boating getaway to the Galapagos Islands. A typical Galapagos cruise will get off to an early start when the birds and animals are most active, and you’ll most likely see them going about their daily activities.
Charle’s Darwin’s The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle would be perfect reading material exploring the Galapagos. Even though Darwin stayed in the Galapagos for only five weeks during his voyage in 1835, he saw a vast amount of wildlife that inspired him to develop the Theory of Evolution.
Charles Darwin wrote about his theories of evolution by natural selection in the book. It is now considered one of the most significant works of scientific study to have been published.
Have you been on a boating holiday? What did you read while on the water?
Did you enjoy this article? Then PIN it for later…
1 Comment