OK, what to do, when you're over the initial steps and long winter evenings beckon? Here are some thoughts on further reading.
My goal is to only buy books I intend to re-read. Those usually include books that go to some depth on a particular subject. For basic surveys or most beginners' guides, I tend to check the local library first. At that level, reading the material once is usually enough.
Therefore, I suggest that you see what your local library has in stock or can obtain by loan. After that, you will know what topic will interest you more deeply and you can add to your holdings selectively.
Books that caught my fancy over the years and have become members of my bookshelf in good standing, include (in no particular order)
- The Boatowners Guide to Corrosion (Collier)
- The Physics of Sailing (Anderson) (basic intro, well compiled)
- Sail Trim (several books by different authors, same title)
- The Sailors Wind, (Walker)
- Sail Performance (Marchaj)
- Yacht Design (Eliasen)
- The Nature of Boats (Gerr)
- The Book of Knots (Ashley)
- Aero-Hydrodynamics (Fossati)
- High Performance Sailing (Bethwaite)
- Higher Performance Sailing (Bethwaite)
and finally, the
- Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
for all the nautical terms (great for reading historical novels).
Almost all of these I've pulled out many times to re-read or to check something, so they've been good investments. Gerr's and Anderson's books are accessible to people new to boats, but curious about the engineering and science behind them. Bethwaite's books are for those who like to find out more about really modern trends (combined with a whole lot of good general info). I'm unlikely to ever sail the boats he's built, but I still learned a lot.
(On aerodynamics of sailing, the website arvelgentry.com deserves an honorable mention - even though it's not a book. Very well explained.)