In January 2011 via facebook I asked the following “Can you suggest books that directly or indirectly feature the sea like Life of Pi, The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, The Old Man and The Sea? All Suggestions Welcome.” The tidal wave of reply is still in my facebook posts but it's now below. Thank you for all the brilliant contributions. I know even thi sis only the tip of the iceberg, a drop in the ocean of books that feature the sea. I've tried to keep the list down to book titles and authors. I would love to make links from every suggestion but I haven't the time unfortunately. Here's the list.
Virginia Wolf’s To the lighthouse, Moby Dick, The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch, On Chesil Beach by Ian Mcewan, Jonathon Livingston’s Seagull, The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh, The Selkie, Jamaica Inn, The Odyssey, Walcott’s Omeros, The Wreck of the Deutschland, Life Of Pi, Cloud Atlas, all Katie Morag books, Diving Bell and The Butterfly, 5 go to Smugglers Top by Enid Blyton, Tom and the island of Dinosaurs, In The Heart of The Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Nightfishing by W.S. Graham, The Waves, We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea by Aurthur Ransome, One Morning in Maine, Lord of The Flies, Treasure Island, Where the Sea Breaks It’s Back, A tale of two Cities, The Sea, The Sea, Empire of The Sun and Roots by Alex Haley
The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Descent into the Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe, PD James’s The Island, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch, The Sea by John Banville, The Sea and the Mirror by W.H. Auden, Full Fathom Five by Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Edward Bond’s The Sea, Journey to the end of the Night by Celine, A Night To Remember by Beryl Bainbridge, The Walk West by Peter Jenkins, Longtitude, Do White Whales Sing At The Edge Of The World, Swallows and Amazons, Dover Beach by Mathew Arnold, Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, The Cripple of Innishman by Martin McDonagh, David Copperfield, The Shipping News, Goulds Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan, Brighton Rock, Sacred hunger, A Taste of Honey (her black lover is a sailor),
Captain Pugwash, Ursula K Le Guin’s The Earthsea Trilogy, Amitay Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies trilogy, Atlantic City Proof by Christopher Cook Gilmore, A Village By The Sea by Anita Desai, The Little Mermaid, Famous Five Go Down To The Sea, The Discovery of Slowness by Sir John Franklin, Blond Roots by Bernadine Evaristo, poetry books: by Spanish Rafael Alberti: Marinero en tierra ('Sailor on Dry Land', 1925), and especially (Pleamar ('High Tide', 1944) and Oda marítima ('Maritime Ode', 1953), La canción del pirata ('The Pirate's Song', 1840), by José de Espronceda; original Spanish with English translation at http://everything2.com/title/La+Canci%25F3n+del+Pirata,
Crossing the Water, by Sylvia Plath, Falesa by Dylan Thomas, R.M Ballantyne’s The Coral Island , CS Forester's Hornblower books, Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea , Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Patrick O'Brien books , Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe, Langston Hughes' autobiography, The Big Sea, On The Beach by Neville Shute, Jules Verne's, Captain James Cooks log book, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima, Cargoes by John Masefield, Moominpappa at Sea, or The Winter Book both by Tove Jansson, The Owl and The Pussycat, The Beach by Alex Garland, Jaws, The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson and Underwater Farmyard by Carol Ann Duffy, Chekhov's short story, Gusev, The eighteenth century novel Roderick Random, The Boy Who Was Afraid by Armstrong Sperry. Great children's story about a polynesian boy who conquers his fear of the sea. Atlantic – by Simon Winchester, Marianne Moore's 'The Grave', A Small Island – both versions by Jamaica Kinkaid and the other one by Andrea Levy. How to Catch a Star – Oliver Jeffers,
The Voyage of Rukunda by Arthur Ransome. John Masefield’s Sea Fever, Julia Donaldson’s 'Tiddler', This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson-voyage of the Beagle and more. Star of the Sea, Joseph O'Connor & English Passengers, Matthew Kneale, Mrs Chippy's last Voyage, Caroline Alexander-wonderful recount of Shackelton's 1914 trip from the perspective of the ship's cat-more frozen sea than water, Riders to the Sea play by J M Synge…set early twentieth century on the Irish Aran island of Inisheer. A mother & daughters wait in dread for news of the only remaining son who they fear has been lost at sea, Enki Bilal Animal'z where human transform back into dolphins and tuna fishes, Pincher Martin by William Golding, Gustav the Goldfish by Dr Seuss, Death Under Sail – S Bellow; Orlando the Ship's Cat, the Edward Ardizzone childrens book about Tim being a stowaway,
the Peppered Moth by M Drabble has a long and miserable cruise, The Corrections by J Franzen ditto… Moonfleet's a classic pirates/smugglers tale. Gulliver's Travels. The Water Babies (or is that just freshwater?) The Voyage of the Dawntreader – CS Lewis- and The Little Mermaid. How to Catch a Mermaid is a modern celtic folk-tale, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami, Kipling, How the Whale Got His Throat, Winterson, The Passion, Book of Genesis, chapters 6–9, Robin Knox-Johnston, A World of My Own. The owl and the pussy cat, Under Milk Wood, The Pobble Who Has No Toes, 'Poet's Obligation' Pablo Neruda ''to whoever is not listenting to the sea, this Friday morning'', the Old Man and His Sons by Heoin Bru, Sally by the Seaside, . All the Enid Blyton Malory Towers books are about a boarding school set by the cornish coast, Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic, The Cruel Sea.