false 1566172 074320073X 9780743200738 4 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185290445m/1566172.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1566172.The_Colombo_Bay 195059 Richard Pollak 10 4 4 0 false Sat Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 12:18:44 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 12:26:28 -0700 2008 The Box, I was inspired to read this book by reading William Gibson's Spook Country. Pollak's book is compulsively readable, a travelogue of his journey from Hong Kong to New York on the containership Colombo Bay. The book is balanced evenly between Pollak's equally skillful descriptions of sailing on the behemoth ship (and getting to know its crew) and his fascinating excursions into related topics, from piracy and the primacy of the Strait of Malacca to the terrible conditions under which most merchant mariners work. His bit on how to describe the use of an anchor is especially wonderful (pp. 159-160). I can't remcommend this book enough.]]>