Customer Comments

Bill Higgins has commented on (3) products.

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

Bill Higgins, January 30, 2013

This is energetic, rich writing. A wonderful story, contemporary characters and place - and all just nearly believable - and paced to keep the reader entranced. No slow going here - you better reserve all day Saturday to enjoy the whole book! Chabon's best effort yet.

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Good Boats by Roger C Taylor

Bill Higgins, May 14, 2012

This is the first in a series of four books that Taylor developed in the 1970s which presented reviews of "interesting boats", mostly sail with a few power craft. Each review is 2 to 5 pages,and includes plans and photos. Each book is the ideal winter-time fireside dream-tool to excite the imagination of the avid yachtsman - and Taylor adds his own bits of whimsy as he imagines sailing (or modifying!) some of the boats. 'Good Boats' deals mostly with quite older boats, almost all designed for wooden construction, and some of them are pretty odd to today's hip sailor. This book is recommended as a survey of great designs and designers, and as an intro to the complete series. The later books I would say present a more practical array of boats, but this first book is really interesting.

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Laminated Wood Boatbuilder: A Step-by-Step Guide for the Backyard Builder

Bill Higgins, June 7, 2011

I have not read this book, but I knew the author for several years immediately prior to the period of its publication, so I offer a personal caveat. In my opinion the problem with this book is that I do not believe that Hub Miller ever actually built a laminated wood boat. He was a fan of them, and briefly owned a coventionally planked wood power boat, but to my knowledge he never was a boat builder. He was an architect by training, a talented artist (paint), and was a great sketch artist of some unusual power boats that reflected his own design concepts. However, to my knowledge the only boat he ever designed to completion was a 16 foot open launch; this was a very pretty little boat custom built for him in fiberglass.
His current web site is www.hubmilleronline.com, and no mention is made his supposed boat building days. I would therefore approach the advice this book offers with caution.

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