This book shouldn't work for me. There's no plot. It's nonfiction. There's no dramatic question. It's mostly just descriptions of collecting marine specimens for later study. The other sailors are lightly drawn, but with humor and tenderness. There are no adventures. No people exoticized.

But I couldn't stop listening. I was captivated by the mundane philosophical reflections on politics, bribery, friendship, acceptance, etc. Not that any of these are “practical” or “important.” It's just that he’s such a beautiful writer.

And I’d want you to read it, dear reader. I just finished the audiobook. Maybe the most beautiful writing (within my specific taste, of course) I’ve ever read. ( )

All these years I thought this book would be about an actual log. I'm about as dumb as one, I guess.

from cover In 1940 John Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the biologist Edward F. Ricketts to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California. This expedition was desciribed by the two men in Sea of Cortez, published in 1941. The day-to-day story of the trip is given in the Log, which combines science, philosophy, and high-spirited adventure. This edition includes Steinbeck's profile of his collaborator, 'About Ed Ricketts.' 'There is more of the whole man, John Steinbeck, in Sea of Cortez than in any of his novels...This is at once the record of a serious biological expedition and of the impact of a biologist and a novelist upon each other's minds-a kind of human sociology...The best of Steinbeck is in it-the mellowest and the crotchetiest.'--Lewis Gannett, New York Herald Tribune 'Like the vibrating guy wire, which reached from the dipping bow to the high mast of the boat, this gay scientific and provocative book will sing ints deep note into the wind of your own thought.'--Boston Herald 'That he can make the record of a leisurely scientific jaunt through the waters of the Gulf of California after creatures of the sea a book to delight and excite the reader, is proof of that genius...a book that everyone will find fascinating.'--Fanny Butcher, Chicago Tribune Contents About Ed Ricketts Introduction Log Glossary Index

Steinbeck and Doc on a boat, what’s not to like? ( )

This book came highly recommended, and I came away disappointed. I had high hopes for a travel book, or journal, from John Steinbeck. But, while the book is detailed in terms of descriptions of things done, and some technical stuff, for the most part, it was dry.
I expect travel books/journals to have life. This did not. ( )