Related to design

I am an avid book collector and book reader. I buy books (always related to boats) at a quite frightening rate.
This is my real addiction. My oldest book on the subject in 1895 and the latesr 2009 which will this week.
I tresure them, read and re-read each one, they are my companions and my source of inspiration.
With them I can evade, learn, I am always pleased how much books can teach me even the one I read several time. My mind just get in tune at the right moment when I am rading something, and the new knoweldge enter in my brain. It is magic.
I started also a personal librairy of articles, pictures in old magazines of vessel with a strong appeal. I have now a lot of binders on that, and mostly on steam yacht, one of my passion. Unfortunatly my personal experience on steam ship is inexistant.
Books are my fuel, Thank you Gutenberg (Two T ot one T?) for you gift. I how you a lot.
Cheers
Daniel

 

Daniel, I share your passion for books and boats, they are a big part of my life.
Gary

 

Yes Gary it is a fantastic world. Never done.
I am glad you share this passion
This is some of the categories I cherrish the most:
Sailing vessel until before WW2
Steam yacht and steam ship
Submarine from John Holland to now
Icebraker
Classic motor yacht
Fishing vessel from the beginning to the latest MacDuff
Merchant vessel

And all sort of other vessels.

 

dskira

Me too...i love collecting books. I love the older ones pre-high tech. Their explanations are often so much better...even if the theory is, by today's knowledge, a bit suspect or lacking in depth (not surprising really).

I have RINA transactions going back to the early 1900s...books on ship construction from the 40s and 50s etc etc.

I have around 100 books, and some 30 fully bound journals from RINA, FFI symposiums etc, and around 2000 article/tech-papers etc. From US Navy research to old BSRA and high quality VT experimental data.

Over the years my main focus has been on aluminium, fatigue, environment of fabrication and how manual skills such as welding, fabricating, skills which are over looked during the design, how these affect the final product....hence i ahve loads of data, some being my own research too, on these subjects.

Also we have done lots of research into hull forms and their hydrodynamic effects, how these influence 'other' issues...so i have a collection of such too, but to a lesser extent than on construction.

My office is rapidly being taken over by my library!!!

 

Ad Hoc
I am so please your are also a book collector. I know what you means when books are taking over.
The books are from the drafting table to my room. I am fortunate to have a very short commute to my work, perhaps 15 meters!!
About RINA I find years ago this interresting book : Rules for the Construction and Classification of Wood Fishing Vessel. 1968
Some very interresting details.
My oldest naval architecture book is Theoretical Naval Architecture 1922 form E.L. Attwood
I find a very inetrresting reprint of the Emenrgency Fleet Wood Ship Construction by W.H. Curtis,1919 with plans and details.
Also one of my finding is a book from the University of Saint Petersburg, it is Theory of Submarine Design by two professor of naval architecture at the univesity Y.N. Kormilistin and O.A Khalizev. I read it several time, absolutly fascinating.
I stop, because I can continue endlessly!
Cheers
Daniel

 

Daniel

well, as i roll out of bed across the hall way to my office, my commute is around 5m!!

I have some real gems...to highlight some is a bit unfair, especially on some of my more modern books etc...but a few, to whet the appetite

I have a set of encyclopedias from 1880...the map of the world, doesn't even have Alice Springs in Australia on it!

Then "The motorboat and Yachting manual", first printed 1907!...some great chapters on wooden construction.
A nice little ..."Refrigeration on small fishing vessels", 1969
A great US Dept of commerce "A guide to the analysis of ship structures" 1960, i bought this in a small shop in Maine before i took the ferry to Nova Scotia.
The complete "NPL displacement round bilge hull series tests" in the NPL, by Bailey...the whole data.
and one other real gem, a RINA Trans from 1924...with papers like "Application of the steam turbine for auxiliary machinery"..

i could go on and on...but i do love all these books. They ahve become like 'old friends' over the years..

 

Books, books,

Never though of myself as a book collector but you guys got me to thinking. A brief survey indicates that there are well over 2000 books in the house on all sorts of subjects. Many relate to boats of course and my wife is an avid birder, so there may be a couple hundred on that subject. Books are so easy to come by now compared to years past. Hear about an interesting book, get on ABE or Amazon and it's likely to be found somewhere in some small dealers collection for a good price. Many out of print and formally hard to locate books are found this way.

Many are found in sales at the local library but most of these are recycled to others because shelf space is becoming more difficult. Our local men's book club adds a new book each month, some of which I'd probably not read but for the club. This month's selection is "Longitude", which I read several years ago but reread and got more out of it this time. Two years ago our son treated the family to a cruise on English narrowboats to celebrate our 50th anniversary. While in London, we went to the Greenwich observatory and saw all the wonderful Harrison Chronometers and mush else to relate to this period of voyaging.

I am a sucker for books on boat design and buy any new or old one that is affordable. The latest is Faltinsen's "Hydrodynamics of High Speed Marine Vehicles" which I am not getting much out of.

I wonder how many are like me and have a lot of half read books that we fully intend to finish but may never do so? Latest non-boating good books are "Water for Elephants" which resonated with my childhood, "The Worst Hard Time" about the depression era dust bowl, "Blood Done Sign My Name" about the most foul era of my home country, "Flags of MY Father" and "Flyboys". The last is a must read for anyone interested in the background of WW2 in the Pacific.

This is getting a little long.

 

Gee, Daniel, you should see my boat books--- I live in Maine too, and my books are all boxed in the attic. You might be interested in seeing them, trade for what have you? I'm near Bangor. You?

 

Tom,
2000 books:!: , I think you are slightly on the verge to be a collector
Good for you. Books are the only media to pass on the knoweldge. They do not need power to be read, and you can turn the pages at your speed and convenience. The light been reflected does not hurt the eyes, and when closed they keep there contain in a self protected and safe "mode"
It is the perfect "form follow function or vise and versa "

Alan,
It will be a great pleasure to meet you.
I am in Rockport, not so far from Bangor. I am going to Spain next week until end of September, and when I return, I will send you an PM and we can meet somewhere in Bangor if it's convenient for you.
Cheers
Daniel

 

good books, specialy on boats and boatdesign are great
still i gave away most and rather use i-net as a giant library
not all documents are free so i ask 2 books a month from the library
yet even the national system, TU delft, naval Den Helder, Phillips etc
dont have them all so occasionally i buy a new book and keep a wishlist
once i've got a book in my head i rather donate it to the library
i'm done with walls full of thousends of books, records etc
do like good old books too but f.e. Chappelle is antique IMHO
i do read a lot, most on boatdesign preferably newer books tho
maybe i just envy your library's guy's and love to source them out

 

Yip, One daughter in law is a librarian. Well actually a preservationist by profession and she has hooked onto a Kindle and reads books on that even though she has access to about any book. You must be more like her if you are happy with the internet as your source. While the internet is a wonderful resource, I don't see it ever replacing all my books. That said, I could surely give a lot more of them away and would never miss them.

Daniel, Allan, I was in Main in July for the WoodenBoat Small Reach Regatta and also in Rockport and Bangor. We visited several bookstores, which seem to be in every small town and even along the roads. Wondered why so many but then thought of the Main winters. That probably explains it

 

I love my reference collection, but there is no search button. I have been found on the floor of my library at 5AM with books and old magazines scattered everywhere. I will read something that starts me thinking about something else that I know I have read but then can not find. To really confuse things I have a complete collection of BDQ, Pro Boat Builder, and WoodenBoat, along with all the books. Some of this stuff is on the net now but not all of it.
Gary

 

Sounds good, Daniel. I look forward to it. I hope you got to all the festivities yesterday.

 

I too am a book collector although that is not my original intent. Those of you who do not have a copy of Manfred Currys' Yacht Racing, The aerodynamics of sails and racing tactics, need to scrounge a copy. copyright about 1950 or so. Some of the information is now hopelessly out of date but it is interesting none the less. You do not need to be a racer to enjoy some of Currys' observations and inventions.

 

May I inform you peers, that the thread opener Daniel Skira decided to quit his membership on this Forum!

Repeated personal attacks by some of our well known drivel and destruction experts, made him decide to leave.

We have lost a well respected NA with a sensible hand for drawing classical beauties.

A man of good temper and a sense for harmony and nice behaviour.

It is a pity that such people are pissed off here by two or three internet rowdies.

Regards
Richard