Books about Houseboat from Amazon.com

In the early 1970s, two idealistic young people—Gwen Carpenter Roland and Calvin Voisin—decided to leave civilization and re-create the vanished simple life of their great-grandparents in the heart of Louisiana’s million-acre Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Armed with a box of crayons and a book called How to Build Your Home in the Woods, they drew up plans to recycle a slave-built structure into a houseboat. Without power tools or building experience they constructed a floating dwelling complete with a brick fireplace. Towed deep into the sleepy waters of Bloody Bayou, it was their home for eight years. This is the tale of the not-so-simple life they made together—days spent fishing, trading, making wine, growing food, and growing up—told by Gwen with grace, economy, and eloquence.

Not long after they took up swamp living, Gwen and Calvin met a young photographer named C. C. Lockwood, who shared their "back to the earth" values. His photographs of the couple going about their daily routine were published in National Geographic magazine, bringing them unexpected fame. More than a quarter of a century later, after Gwen and Calvin had long since parted, one of Lockwood’s photos of them appeared in a National Geographic collector’s edition entitled 100 Best Pictures Unpublished—and kindled the interest of a new generation. That photo and many others by Lockwood are included here.

With quiet wisdom, Gwen recounts her eight-year voyage of discovery—about swamp life, wildlife, and herself. A keen observer of both the natural world and the ways of human beings, she transports readers to an unfamiliar and exotic place, preserving her great adventure for those who did not make the trip in person.

"I [would write] in the stern of our red and green bateau while Calvin was running nets or lines from the bow. Since ink smears when it gets wet, I used pencils on a yellow legal pad propped against the black Mercury outboard motor. Whenever it was time for me to crank the motor and run us to the next line or net, I’d sit on the pad to keep it from blowing away. . . . During the writing process, we carried on our regular conversations. The stories are almost extensions of those conversations, rising and falling with our voices, capturing the essence of our daily lives like our elderberry wine captured the fragrance of April to be released again in October."—from the prologue

AUTHOR BIO: Gwen Roland is a writer and editor for the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at the University of Georgia in Griffin. She is at work on a novel set one hundred years ago in the Atchafalaya Basin..
Price: $14.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Liz Kessler makes a splash with this tightly written, highly imaginative debut." — FAMILYFUN

For as long as she can remember, twelve-year-old Emily Windsnap has lived on a boat. And, oddly enough, for just as long, her mother has seemed anxious to keep her away from the water. But when Mom finally agrees to let her take swimming lessons, Emily makes a startling discovery - about her own identity, the mysterious father she's never met, and the thrilling possibilities and perils shimmering deep below the water's surface. With a sure sense of suspense and richly imaginative details, first-time author Liz Kessler lures us into a glorious undersea world where mermaids study shipwrecks at school and Neptune rules with an iron trident - an enchanting fantasy about family secrets, loyal friendship, and the convention-defying power of love..
Price: $1.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Alden family rents a houseboat to drift down the river, and encounters a mystery in the little towns along the river, involving a fast black car..
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Jump into the cold water, right off the front porch, for an early swim; take hot coffee alfresco in a rooftop deck chair as the sunrise lights a panorama of sea birds and skyline; then, kayak off to a meeting downtown.

Live on a houseboat and you see wildlife and city life converge to make every day feel like vacation. That's what they say. Thousands of permanent water citizens-ranging from young tycoons to elder hippies-have rejected big houses, chattel, and land for the rich neighborhood life of dense residential marinas. This isn't a lifestyle look, it's the real thing. Adventurous living: independent, expressive, and fun.

The most comprehensive book on the floating dwellings of North America, The Houseboat Book reveals intriguing villages (floating on century-old cedar logs, concrete barges, Styrofoam blocks, plastic barrels, fiberglass, and painted wood) in British Columbia, Canada, and in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. One sees wonderfully inventive architecture-a thatched cabana in paradisiacal Key West, a barged train car (as family home/circus stage) in industrial Brooklyn-imaginative design at its best.
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Price: $11.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Snap did not say whether he would or not. Flossie standing on the side porch waited for her little brother She was just his age and only a little smaller in height. She was just about as fat and plump as was Freddie and both had light curly hair..
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This charming book sails away from the typical photographic tours found in most houseboat books, focusing instead on the stories of the enchanting people who dwell by the docks. Undoubtedly, Seattle’s Lake Union is a stunningly beautiful area. But it is the marvelous mishmash of freshwater folks and the unique community they create that makes living off-land so intriguing. .
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Water-loving people of modest means have lived aboard houseboats for centuries, and why not? Unlike expensive, cramped, and hard-to-build liveaboard cruising boats, spacious, homey houseboats are easily and economically constructed from commmon lumberyard materials And unlike those high-priced waterfront cottages, there's no lawn to mow and often no property taxes. And if you don't like the new neighbors, just up anchor and be off.

This book tells those who would live afloat how to design and build their own place on the water. There are detailed plans and building instructions for sample houseboats; help with designing a personalized houseboat from scratch; resource-stingy contrivances for easing life aboard, including a solar oven, a windmill-powered washing machine, and innovative power-, water-, and waste-management systems; and more..
Price: $347.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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