Recommend a good dive book

[sourcearun]

A new diver starting out may not know which type of diving direction you may choose to take. Choose an unusual dive location and discover the hidden dangers, like Costeau's "Silent World". . . Written by a French naval commander. Interested in treasure hunting? Diving for Sunken Treasure, by Cousteau leads to treasure other that Gold. The pioneer of ocean ecology writes about his struggles with the French government in the "Living Sea" If you want to read about many different topics, from diving pioneers, "Cousteau's Underwater Treasury" is a treasury of early divers.

All of these books were written before "Sea Hunt" and the Cousteau specials. Each can be found in large bookstores with older books, and each is available on "ebay". I found mine, several in first edition, with dust jacket. . . These early books were printed in small numbers, by an unknow author - Jacques Cousteau, and have an excellent chance of going up in price. . . But mostly a fantastic journey with the pioneer of diving.

Thanks a lot for the info. HOwever, on amazon, the same book sells from $2.50 to $ 92.60. Why? Whats the difference? They all are the same 1959 edition. Am I missing something here?

 

[mudhole]

The book came out, post world war two, with no general interest in going underwater, except if a very few places where snorkelers were spearfishing. The publisher's first printing were for libraries, and a small number of books for sportsmen. The book went out to the libraries, National Geographic, and some sporting magazines and interest was bigger than expected so a second, third, etc printing.

For reading choose the best condition possible at a cheap price. For collecting you want to find the best condition, with dust jacket, first printing, And the holy grail is an autographed first edition. . . Jacques Cousteau was not eager to autograph lots of books, so his signature is rare in his book.

My "Silent World" is by Harper and Rowe 1953. When I searched for the book in the mid '60's It was considered a "used" book. . . The man I delt with was a rare book dealer, and was shocked that first editions were the same price as following printings. He bought all that were available at that time, gave me the best pick, and started dealing with it as a rare book.

 

[sourcearun]

Hi All,

I managed to find a very good book ' Diving Science' by Michael B. Strauss, Igor V. Aksenov. It is really comprehensive and covers almost all the topics associated with Diving in quite some depth. Its technical in nature and yet quite simple in treatment.

Arun