We're having a splendid time reading books.

Monday January 4, 2009
This is a story with a bit of a twist....
A few days ago, I decided to go for a walk and found a little thrift shop (they are supporting children with disabilities). If you know me, you also know that I would have had to go in and would have found something to buy. And yes, I did buy... a pair of corduroy pants and a linen skirt. But, then as I was getting ready to pay, a book on the shelf caught my eye.... A World of My Own by Robin Knox-Johnston. It has a picture of a sailboat on the cover. I bought it, not bothering to read what it was about, and thinking that Jerry would probably like to read it when he finished the book he had just started.

When I got back home I showed the book to Jerry. Now there is something else you should know at this point, and that is that Jerry is reading a book that he picked up in Portland at the used book store. It is called Godforsaken Sea by Derek Lundy. It is also a sailboat book. So it turns out, that the two books are really about the same thing, just 40 years apart! Robin Knox-Johnston successfully sailed his little 32 foot wooden boat single-handed around the world in 1967-68, being the first to do it solo. A World of My Own is his account of his trip taking him almost a year to complete. Godforsaken Sea is about the Vendee Globe race of 1996 disaster, also a round the world race, but taking only about 100 days or so.

So, since Jerry was reading Godforsaken Sea, I decided I would start on A World of My Own. Now this is where the really interesting part comes in..... as we are both reading through our books, the boats are passing through the same parts of the ocean, and it is really quite neat to compare the race 40 years apart! So, we have just about spent the whole day today reading, and comparing notes. We are convinced we do not want to do this! Good books though.

Okay, check this out. What do you think this is? Hint: I found them in our yard.