The Editor's Book Picks
The Best of the Dive Books for Serious Divers
A portion of the profits from any books ordered
will be donated to preserve coral reefs.
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Prices indicated below are valid at the time of posting, though Amazon.com may change them.
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Think about it: doesn't every dive photo book come with a black cover? Not Secret Sea -- this one looks a bit like the Beatles' White Album. I consider this book a classic. Another high quality underwater photo book? Yes, but it's more than that. The photos are exquisite and will be enjoyed by everyone who appreciates beauty, but this book will really thrill dive aficionados. Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock have captured the rare, the bizarre, and the coveted of the underwater world. It's not just the weird and the wild, it's the outrageously wonderful photos of the weird and wild. In addition, this book has real text -- text that paints images of marine behavior and scenes that can only come from staying in the water until algae starts to grow on your wetsuit. A lot of care and expertise went into this book, and I thoroughly enjoy its results. If I could have only one coffee table book, this would be it. Would someone please give it to me for Christmas? Hardbound, 12 x 12, 164 pages, 153 color photos. List $85.00. Order now. |
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(University of California Press/Monterey Bay Aquarium, 2001). Here's a new book with a slant on the underwater world like no other: the adventures of a marine biologist in search of critters to populate the tanks of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Marine World of the Pacific, and other scientific displays. The author, David Powell, began his collecting career when at five years old, after going fishing for the first time, he brought home a fish he caught and slept with it under his pillow. His career culminated by serving as curator of the Monterey Bay Aquarium for nearly 20 years. When Powell started diving, he used longjohns to keep warm. He made his first underwater light from a used sealed beam automobile headlight connected to a surface battery for power. No depth gauge; no BCD; no submersible pressure gauge. Powell describes how public aquariums set up displays, collect the animals, bring them home, and how they keep them alive and display them. Yet the best part is his description of the many journeys he takes to dive and collect fish, up and down the coast of California and Mexico, hunting the Coelacanth in Africa, searching for flashlight fish with John McCosker and joining Sylvia Earle in a critter search. Indeed a delightful read. 352 pages, $29.95 list. |
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is a remarkable book of photos and text of the freedivers who hang at 30 feet to hunt tuna and marlin, sailfish and wahoo. I don't spear, but I admire the courage and skill of these breathhold hunters. Great stories of adventure, danger, shark attacks, hunts, and the encounters of prey and predators. Author and oral surgeon Terry Maas, who in one photo is dwarfed by the 398-pound bluefin he shot, is a five-time national spearfishing champion. Plenty of full-color hunt photos. Exciting and unusual -- a great book for your coffee table. Hardbound, 200 pages, $39.95. |
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