BW27: Sailiing West of the Prime Meridian

Ahoy my dear seafarers and welcome to Maritime July.   It's time to weight anchor and head west of the Prime Meridian. We'll head out across the Pacific Ocean and let the trade winds determine our direction. You can go in search of Moby Dick, join the Napoleonic Wars, experience mutinies and ship wrecks or simply explore. 

Let's climb on board Herman Melville's fictitious Pequod with Captain Ahab as he searches for Moby Dick. For those who have already read Moby Dick, explore nautical adaptions, alternatives or non fiction. Join the Essex (inspired Moby Dick) in Nathaniel Philbrick's historical tale In the Heart of the Sea.  Fight the seas as well as the whales in Mel Odom's Hunter's of the Dark Sea.  You could also chose to stay on land with Sena Jeter Naslund's historical fiction saga Ahab's wife or China Mieville's dystopian parody Railsea. Follow Ishmael into outer space with Ray Bradbury's Leviathan 99 or Philip Jose Farmer's Wind Whales of Ishmael.  

Immerse yourself in sea life during the Napoleonic wars and climb on board with Captain Aubrey in Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander series or Horatio Hornblower in C.S. Forester's Hornblower Saga.  

Live vicariously through Thor Heyerdahl as he replicates the mythical voyage of Kon Tiki across the Pacific in a raft or with Joshua Slocum in Sailing Alone around the World.

Our nautical explorations wouldn't be complete without Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny or Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea or Jules Vernes' 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Need more ideas?  Check out the Mother of all Maritime Links or the ever helpful Goodreads Book of the High Seas and Books about Seafaring Cats.

Happy Sailing! 

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2016 Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Are you ready to join me for another year of Reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks? The rules are quite simple. How you get there is up to you.  Whether you are a monogamous reader or like to dip into multiple books at a time, love diving into chunky books or sailing along with a beach read, submerging yourself in a classic or weighing anchor with those dusty books gathering dust on your shelves, it all averages out in the end.  The goal is to read 52 Books.  

We're going to sail around the world this year, starting off East of the Prime Meridian for the first half of the year, criss-crossing the oceans and seas, visiting various ports of call.  We have several author readalongs planned for the year from E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, to Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, to Dante's Paradiso as well as revisiting Moby Dick and various adaptations of the story both fiction and non fiction.   We'll continue with Susan Wise Bauer's History series with our year long read of History of the Renaissance World.    Check out Monthly Themes and Readalong  for more information

There are several mini challenges to help amp up the fun, explore new authors and genres and spread your reading sails.

A to Z Challenge:  Challenge yourself to read books alphabetically by Title and/or by Author or both. Have fun searching out those difficult letters.

Dusty Mini challenge: Limit buying new books for 1 - 4 months and/or read 4 to 12 or more books gathering dust on your shelves prior to 2016.

Chunky Mini Challenge -  books more than 500 pages.

Well Educated Mind:  Continuing exploring the classics in 5 categories: Fiction, Autobiography, History/Politics, Drama and Poetry.  Susan Wise Bauer's 2015 revised version includes a new category of Science to explore.

All the challenges and readalongs are optional. Mix it up anyway you like.

1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. 
2. Our book weeks begin on Sunday. 
3. Participants may join at any time. 
4. All books are acceptable except children books. 
5. All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc. 
6. Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2016.. 
7. Books may overlap other challenges. 
8. Create an entry post linking to this blog. 
9. Sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" below this post. 
10. You don't need a blog to participate. Post your weekly book in the comments section of each weekly post. 
11. Mr. Linky will be added to the bottom of the weekly post to link to reviews of your most current reads.

Happy Reading!