A review by lesliebeach
Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea by Richard Henry Dana Jr.

This is my father's favorite book of all time, and finally, after many years of resistance (mostly on the basis of its being nonfiction, which I struggle to read), I've finished it. It is truly a fine yarn, the recollections and observations of a Harvard student in eighteen thirty something who goes to sea to heal his strained eyes, sails around the horn, explores nascent California (still a part of Mexico, pre-Gold Rush) and works in a way a young academic had never worked before. His insight into the social atmosphere at sea and ashore is clear, if rooted in his time, and the history of my state and its perception in the eyes of the world kept me engaged throughout. Excellent armchair adventure.