The Mariner's Book of Days 2008 by Peter H. Spectre, Seafarer Books, £9.95.
It's not too late to start keeping a diary for this year - and what could be better than this attractive book to keep it in? An annual publication since 1992, the Mariner's Book of Days has been hailed as the best, most entertaining nautical desk diary and calendar available.
A valuable reference work in its own right, a delightful anthology of all things maritime, from practical advice to poetry, with a page of nautical knowledge opposite each week's diary page. And the diary entries also include “this day in maritime history” with interesting trivia for every day of the year.
Each year's Mariner's Book of Days is completely different from its predecessors, and they have become avidly collected, for their idiosyncratic and engaging voyage through the maritime past, present and future.
This annual treasure comes from America, and its transatlantic slant means that there are all kinds of unexpected treats in the collection: it's not just the “same old, same old” you might have come to expect from home-grown nautical miscellanies.
