Now I'll get serious for a bit about the real hardships of life afloat! It's not storms and hurricanes or pirates and villians the real downside of sailing around and living on a boat is simply that keeping abreast of the arts is seriously problematic! Movies, books and music are the real thorn in the whole paradise on a boat gig!
At least St Thomas has a bookstore... St Martin for all of its hip and jet set styling is a bookstore-free zone! So St Thomas and Dockside books get some brownie points but I still don't have any books to read... So how does that go?
The real problem lies in the realm of publishing as these days every book seems to be a serial publication... Sound of head hitting bulkhead... So, while at the book store every book I picked up that looked interesting seemed to be the third or fourth book in a series. Which is OK if the bookstore in question has the series in stock as I'd simply buy whatever series interested me. On the other hand, I have been carrying around the third book in a series that I've read the first book but don't want to read the third till I have read the second... ARRRGGGHHH!
Of course, we boat folk do a lot of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but the costs of shipping and just the fact that mail drops are at best somewhat problematic makes for big orders and long waits to be able to pick them up. While I do like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, neither store has the touchy feely and serendipitous experience that I find needful in finding new and different books to read...
Case in point, just as we were about to leave Dockside books there was a book on the end of an aisle just crying out to be picked up and read. "Jewish Pirates of The Caribbean" a book I had never heard of and one that had eluded my many pirate history searches in both the Amazon and Barnes and Noble search quests. But that is how bookstores work... You go to pick up one book and discover something you did not even know you are looking for... So it goes!
I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into "JPOTC" as it looks like a goodie... I'd always known Jean LaFitte was Jewish but thought he was something of a one-off and I can't wait to learn more...
