Do Dolphins Ever Sleep?: 211 Questions and Answers about Ships, the Sky and the Sea

Great read, informative on a variety of topics regarding the sea, weather, boating. Catchy title says it all!

Have you ever had one of those moments when you think to yourself, "Huh, I wonder how that works?" or "I wonder why that is so?" Then this is the book for you. In an accessible and engaging style the author provides concise answers to question such as , "Why is the sea salty?", "how do clouds and fog form?", and "How can the GPS be so precise?" Many people avoid books related to science or more generally technical matters for fear of not understanding them or of being bored to death. This book will quell those fears. While it's technical enough to keep a scientist or engineer interested, the authors deft hand at explaining each topic makes it accessible to the average person.

Some friends of mine gave me this book because they knew I had an interest in sailing, cruising sailboats, navigation, etc. I initially didn't know what to think of the book based on the title, but after dipping into it I was absorbed, and couldn't put it down. The topics covered are wide-ranging but revolve around nautical themes: Why are tides so much bigger in some areas than others? Is coral a plant or animal? Where did the terms starboard and port come from? What are the major ocean sailboat races? How did the Polynesians navigate? Each topic is covered concisely, yet with remarkable detail. What I probably appreciate most about this book is the fact that the author does not "dumb down" his answers. He often accompanies his explanations with figures, graphs, and occasional equations. It says on the back cover that the author was an engineer, and it shows (I mean this as a complement!). I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great gift to give their sailor friend, or for anyone who has spent time on a boat or who simply loves the ocean and its environs.

It is a really wonderful work, and I'm so happy that I bought a copy and was able to meet Pierre and Sally at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis. Not only can this be used as a reference book, but I find that reading it straight through - cover to cover - is even more rewarding. - Captain Donald Launer (Contributing Editor, "Good Old Boat Magazine." Author of "A Cruising Guide to New Jersey Waters," "Dictionary of Nautical Acronyms and Abbreviations," and "Lessons from My Good Old Boat.")

The range of fascinating questions covered by this book and the relaxed writing style make it hard to put down, although one of the nice aspects of this book is that it is equally well suited for casual random browsing or a careful cover-to-cover read. At first I supposed I found it so engaging just because I have always been very interested in how things work and the history of technology, making the wide ranging discussions of oceanography, weather, navigation, animal physiology, and countless other topics inevitably appealing to me, but I have recently had two visitors who are not particularly interested in such things pick this book up off my shelf and find themselves unable to put it down. For these readers, the book poses questions they have never really thought about and does it in such a way that they really want to know the answers! Many readers will find some questions to be rudimentary--for example, professional or amateur marine biologists are unlikely to learn anything about fish physiology and climatologists may learn nothing new about weather phenomena--but I doubt there are any readers out there who will fail to find enough fascinating and new (to them) information to make this book well worth their time. The author's own curiosity is obviously extremely wide ranging and although the treatment of topics is inevitably somewhat uneven the book appears to be generally very thoroughly researched. The answers to some questions (such as the one that gives the book its title)are clearly identified as tentative and this emphasizes the real strength of this book: It is not intended as a detailed authoritative source on any particular topic. Although most readers will find most of the answers sufficiently satisfying, for some readers this book will serve as a jumping off point for further reading--and I would not be at all surprised if some of the questions with explicitly incomplete answers inspire some budding scientists to pursue more definitive answers to unresolved questions. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone--teens or older--who is generally curious about "how things work" and particularly for anyone with a special affinity for the sea. Get a copy for yourself, but it's also a gift that most recipients will really appreciate!