A book is the answer to most questions...

This pretty much says it all, something to be aware of, and a safe bet formula wise...

Almost everything you need to know about boats can be found in a half-dozen or so books... It's as simple as that.

I mention this because the last couple of weeks I have been pondering why there is so much misinformation floating around. The possible conclusion I've come to are that folks don't really read anymore and prefer their information in dumbed down sound bites or forum posts. If they did read a book or article they skim/glance at pictures and use the internet as a sorta/kinda Cliff's Notes.

Last night while looking at some "reader" reviews of a few books I hold in high esteem made me wonder if the reviewers had actually in fact read the books...

For instance, this about Fred Bingham's "Boat Joinery & Cabinetmaking Simplified"

"The book is outdated as far as technique. I was expecting to learn the how and why of boat cabinetry, not just basic cabinetry that you would find in an ordinary house."  

Now, personally I simply do not see his point as cabinetry, whether for a boat or a house, is pretty much the same thing and Bingham gives you everything you need to know for where there actually is a difference. Face it, building an interior in a boat is simply building a lot of irregular sized boxes with odd angles here and there.

I have quite a lot of boatbuilding books and read and re-read them on a regular basis because they "talk" to me and, considering what project I'm currently working on, I get different insights. For instance, just the other day planning out a new boom for "So It Goes", I reread the relevent sections in Bingham's book as well as Reuel Parker's "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding" and "Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding". Those, with a re-read of Russel Brown's "Epoxy Basics: Working with Epoxy Cleanly & Efficiently", have pretty much set the stage for what I hope to be a much improved and affordable boom that will do exactly what I need it to do.

Then again, I could have put the question to various forums and got a ton of verbage with very little veracity or practical content...

Books work for me.


Listening to Los Texmaniacs

So it goes...