Need advice on books.

[river runner]

I already have Skene's (the revised edition) and Yacht Designing and Planning, by Chapelle, as well as about a dozen books on construction and building.
It is obvious that I need other sources to answer all my questions. I just went to the SNAME website to look at their books and CDs. Some sounded like they would be of interest to me, but I'm looking forward to retirement, not starting a new career in Naval Architecture and I'd have to put off retirement if I purchased many of these books. They aren't cheap.
My primary interest is human powered boats with specific interests in flat water efficiency and how they perform in shallow water and rough water (both rapids and wind driven waves).
A few items that caught my attention were:
Principles of Naval Architecture:ship resistance and flow
Principles of Naval Architecture:Intact Stability
Stability and Safety of Ships:risk of capsizing
Shallow Water and Supercritical Ships

I can't buy all of these. Do any of these sound like books that would be "must haves" for me. Would there be a more general purpose book that would answer all my questions and save me buying a bunch of books on specialized subjects.

[daiquiri]

I am afraid that you will not find a single book which covers all aspects of ship design. Besides that, most of scientifically written books cover the aspects of big ships design and operation - not the canoes, kayaks or pedal boats. So you'll have to read, learn and then make your own extrapolations, conclusions and research.

PNA series is a good reference, imho the most complete one. Other good but less in-depth choices could Bertram's "Ship Design for Efficiency and Economy" or Tupper's "Basic ship Theory" - vol.1 (stability) and vol.2 (ship dynamics).

[DCockey]

Principles of Yacht Design is a good overview of sailing yacht design, much of which is applicable to smaller boats.