Everything Hampton Sides writes is a good book. I highly recommend "Blood and Thunder" if anyone's interested in the West. Same with Erik Larson, and some others, Krakaur, etc...
T.H.White: The Once and Future King Dan Simmons: The Terror; Drood Max Brooks: World War Z; Devolution
I read that book everyday, great choice indeed. Also reading, Your Money or Your Life right now. Trying to get better with my finances, illuminating book on the subject. Others I've recently read are The Simple Path to Wealth, ChooseFI, The 4 Hour Work Week, and First To a Million.
Rich dad poor dad is a must for all beginners. Stop buying liabilities and buy assets. The compound effect is my third favorite book, you get the big momentum going and you don't look back. I've also made it a ritual where I lift weights in my living room and watch YouTube videos of Tom Nash, Zip trader and Jerry Romine. Thank me later.
This was a nightmare of a journey indeed. You just knew things weren't going to go well with some of the people they resorted to hiring before sailing off on their expedition.
What's really interesting about this book is that for nearly 180 years, the primary source of information about the Essex came from a volume that first mate Owen Chase prepared with a ghostwriter. But, in 1960 an old notebook was found in the attic of a New York home, and 20 years later reached the hands of a Nantucket whaling expert who realized the original owner of the notebook had been the Essex's cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, who was the youngest member of the crew of the Essex, and only 14. Nickerson was 71 when he put his story to paper, after being urged by a professional writer. He said he could still look back on that time like it was yesterday, and of course his memories were bolstered by conversations with other survivors. For some reason the notebook of his only draft that was given to the writer was never published. The writer later gave the notebook to a neighbor who died with it in his possession. The author of this book describes this account's perspective coming from a wide-eyed child on the verge of manhood, of an orphan looking for a home. I personally never read any of the other books based on whaling, or the Essex, but this book gripped me to the core.
