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| The Loon Feather was borrowed from, read then returned to this same exchange. The “no back” as Wayne nicknamed the other book, came from the nearby Laundromat book exchange. |
What do you… do… exactly? My 20-something almost-PhD & professorial niece asked.
While one of these days I’ll do a pie chart or some other more fun visual on our time typically fles by as cruisers. Bottom line – since so many things are manual, especially for cheapskates like us, basic everyday tasks take longer.
One classic cruising escape is reading books “borrowed” from book exchanges. You can count on finding book exchanges at or near nearly every marina and yacht club. Oftentimes coffeeshops, bars, restaurants, laundromats and business centers wanting to attract cruisers offer exchanges as well. Book trading among cruisers is also a time-honored tradtition. After all, who better understands how little space we’re willing to allocate for anything no longer needed? Trading an unread book for a read book? No brainer.
Yes, we each own a Kindle. Wayne’s hard drive houses a library collection of 8,000 books. Still, for me, nothing beats the comforting feel of holding a book in my hand, inhaling its musty scent, the kinesthetic magic of my fingers caressing the paper, savoring the satisfaction of another page completed.
Book Exchanges We’ve Found: St Lucia – St Thomas
- St Lucia: Oceans Beach Bar & Restaurant and St Lucia Yacht Club
- Guadeloupe: Laundomat at Pointe a Pitre marina
- Nevis: Nevis Library (free books and books for $1 or less)
- St. Martin: Business Center at Simpson Bay IGY Marina
- St. Barts: Gustavia marina (the customs and immigration check-in)
- St. Croix: Teague Bay’s St. Croix Yacht Club
- St. John: restaurant at Coral Bay
- St Thomas: Crown Bay Marina Laundromat
- Water Island: Phllips Landing
Baker’s Dozen “Found” Books*
1. The Lemon Tree (non-fiction, story of a Palestinian and Israeli dialog)
2. Undomestic Goddess (domestically clueless high powered London attorney becomes a country maid – comedy-romance)
3. Gone Bamboo (mystery set in St Martin & St Barts)
4. The Homecoming (German immigrant establishes himself in the US industrial age)
5. The Day After Tomorrow (conspiracy / murder mystery)
6. The Loon Feather (Chief’s daughter caught between two cultures)
7. Portuguese Irregular Verbs (satirical tale of a self-important linguistics professor)
8. Uglies(think Logan’s run crossed with Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees)
9. Hunger Games(c’mon, you had see the movie!)
10. Cruising Cuisine (source of my favorite mostly no-knead 3-hour bread recipe)
11. Sophie’s World (The history of philisophy wrapped around a story)
12. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt’s classic poverty-stricken autobiography of his youth)
13.Tai-Pan (James Clavell’s prequel to the sweeping miniseries Shogun)
*not counting any ebooks; does include cruiser trades & gifts
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| Philips Landing book exchange on Water Island, where the ferry comes in. Pretty dusty, eclectic mostly decades-old mix. |
Good post Dana, although something struck me when you said, "nothing beats the comforting feel of holding a book in my hand, inhaling its musty scent, the kinesthetic magic of my fingers caressing the paper, savoring the satisfaction of another page completed"…I would suggest reading "50 Shades of Grey" on your Kindle or buy your own copy! 😉 Am I bad? Ethereal
It's on my list when the price is right…. We almost picked a copy up at a white elephant Christmas gift exchange but decided that rum was better as we were next in line for reading it after the winner. Alas, we never got a copy.
Rumor has it the quality of writing leaves a lot to be desired but that for most of us, it is… educational.
As far as bad, dunno. Sometimes it's the new good, or, at least more interesting.