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‘Brimming with knowledge and experience . . . delightful’ Daily Telegraph

‘An extraordinary book by a modern-day Melville whose deep knowledge, boundless curiosity and endearingly wry humour make him the perfect guide to the world beyond our shores’ Mark Vanhoenacker, author of Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot

‘Relatable, reflective, and humorous . . . a genuinely immersive read’ Countryman

What’s in a cloud? What separates a tropical storm from a winter blizzard? And what exactly is El Nino? Elliot Rappaport, a professional captain of traditional sailing ships, has spent three decades at sea, where understanding weather could be the difference between life and death.

Told through a series of tall ship voyages, Rappaport’s narrative takes readers from the icy seas of Greenland to the Roaring Forties, places where one can experience all four seasons in an hour. He navigates the turbulent waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, en route to storied port cities of the Mediterranean. In the vast tropical Pacific, he crosses the equator, where heat, moisture, and unsettled winds churn out powerful squalls, and drops anchor in isolated ports of call. He explores wide swathes of ocean to explain how the trade winds have carried ships westward for centuries, and how ancient Polynesian explorers pushed back the other way.

Written in stunning prose, brimming with wisdom, curiosity, and humour, Reading the Glass brilliantly blends science and memoir to reveal how weather has shaped our oceans, our history, and ourselves.

Publisher Review

Reading the Glass is an extraordinary book by a modern-day Melville whose deep knowledge, boundless curiosity and endearingly wry humour make him the perfect guide to the world beyond our shores. Elliot Rappaport has completely transformed my awareness of the vast reaches of water that dominate our planet's surface, and of the debt we all owe to our ancestors who made a science and an art out of crossing them. I can't recommend this book highly enough -- Mark Vanhoenacker, author of Skyfaring We live on a planet - easy to forget in your secure suburban home, but not out on the open sea. The author provides a gripping account of what weather is, how it feels to be in the middle of it, and what we can expect going forward! -- Bill McKibben, author of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon Part Bill Nye, part Captain Cook, Elliot Rappaport leads an around-the-world adventure filled with eye-popping insights from the deepest depths to the high atmosphere. For those of us too chicken to cross thousands of miles on ships, Rappaport's action-packed logbook is full of history, wisdom, and hilarious stories from life on the open seas -- Daniel Stone, author of The Food Explorer Veteran captain Elliot Rappaport knows firsthand how winds, storms, and currents affect boats, from the smallest dinghies to great ocean liners. Here, he uses his considerable literary gifts to turn meteorology into a living science . . . While sailors will relate at once to Rappaport's prose, this book is a must-read even for landlubbers -- Mark Knoblauch * Booklist * Rappaport, who has been a sea captain since 1992 and teaches at the Maine Maritime Academy, makes his book debut with vibrant accounts of sailing around the world. Central to his spirited, informative narrative is weather . . . Fascinating journeys with an expert guide * Kirkus * I loved this book. What a fabulous compendium it is of terror and disaster, expertise and courage, by a man who knows with true intimacy what he calls "the vast planetary engine" of the weather. Chapter after chapter is filled with a vivid sense of being out at sea in storm and calm and every page has his decades of lived life embedded in it, years and years of looking, responding, making the good and necessary decisions. It feels written, in other words, by a man you would be more than happy to go to sea with. -- Adam Nicolson, author of Life Between the Tides: In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore Relatable, reflective, and humorous . . . descriptive and insightful, it is perfect for those who love the sea, and wish to know more about the adventures of those who sail upon it . . . a genuinely immersive read * Countryman *