This week’s Top Ten Tuesday with The Broke and the Bookish is up: Books Set at the Beach/Near the Sea. Oh man. It’s like these ladies are just trying to test my faint memories of books gone by! Seriously doubting I’ll make it to ten on this one, guys, but I’ll give it a try!
1. This Is What Happy Looks Like – Jennifer E. Smith. I read this relatively recently, so the setting is still fresh in my mind – it’s set in a seaside town in Maine. It even has a boat in it.
2. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome. I read this book as a kid and the story has stuck with me. It’s about a troupe of kids who learn to sail and fend for themselves in the outdoors. They then take small boats to an island near their house and proceed to take it over and live there during the summer.
3. For the Love – Kelly Slater. Of course it’s set at the beach. The guy’s a surfer. Amazing photos, entertaining story. Don’t remember much else.
4. Pirate Latitudes – Michael Crichton. Straight up – I haven’t finished this yet. But I remember it being set in a port town, and it’s about pirates, so…..
5. The Rum Diary – Hunter S. Thompson. One of Thompson’s early works – and only novel – is about a reporter who ends up in Puerto Rico for awhile. Lots of beach and water, if memory serves.
6. Juliet, Naked – Nick Hornby. Okay, so I’m not entirely sure, but I think this is at least partly set in a seaside town in the UK. Isn’t it?
7. City of Glass – Douglas Coupland. It’s about Vancouver’s iconic spots, so it’s bound to mention the water a few times. At the very least it’ll have Wreck Beach.
8. In A Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson. Bryson writes travel memoirs infused with historical and geographical info that are highly entertaining as well as educational. This one is about Australia. Granted a lot of it has nothing to do with water, but there are some parts that involve water – like the chapter when he learns to boogie board. So I’m counting it.
9. The Size of the World – Jeff Greenwald. It’s another travel memoir about a guy who travels around the world without leaving it – aka no airplanes. So obviously there are boats in it from time to time.
10. Moby Dick – Herman Melville. Okay, so I’ve never read it. But it’s about a whale, right? So I’m guessing there must be ocean in it somewhere. Hey, desperate times…
Yeah, I know, some of those are really stretching the theme. But at least I tried. Wow me with how much better you can do and link up with The Broke and the Bookish here!