First You Have to Row a Little Boat

Reflections on Life & Living

By Richard Bode (Trade Paperback, 1995)

Now with a brand new foreword from New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Zaslow.

FIRST YOU HAVE TO ROW A LITTLE BOAT first hit shelves in the mid 1990s and has been inspiring readers ever since. Written by a grown man looking back on his childhood, it reflects on what learning to sail taught him about life: making choices, adapting to change, and becoming his own person. The book is filled with the spiritual wisdom and thought-provoking discoveries that marked such books as Walden, The Prophet, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. For nearly twenty years, it has enchanted and endeared sailors and non-sailors alike, but foremost, anyone who seeks large truths in small things. This refurbished edition will find a place in the hearts of a whole new generation of readers.

Full Description

Buy This Book

- Format: Trade Paperback
- Price: $14.99 US/$16.50 CAN
- ISBN-13: 9780446670036
- On Sale Date: 06/01/1995
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Full Details
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, Hardcover Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Electronic Book, Audiobook, Trade Paperback
Newsletter

Don't miss updates about our authors, including book tour info and new book releases.

Sign Up

Richard Bode worked at McGraw Hill and was editorial director and chief speechwriter at Burston-Marsteller. As a freelance writer, he contributed to Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Sail, Sports Illustrated. He is also the author of Blue Sloop at Dawn (1979), which was excerpted in Sports Illustrated, Newsday Sunday Magazine, and Sail, and wrote the award-winning essay "To Climb the Wind." He died in 2003 of liver cancer.

"Bode (Blue Sloop at Dawn) uses his great love of sailing as a metaphor for the tides of life. Describing his own introduction to sailing at age 12, he stresses the importance of mastering the simple, small things before attempting more complicated actions. Later the author purchases a blue sloop, matures and, as a grown man with children, decides to sell the sloop and sail into new, uncharted waters, assuming he will never forget the many important lessons the boat taught him. Other themes include complacency ("Going with the Wind"), confusion ("Fogbound"), forgiveness ("A Forgiving Boat"), and violence ("A Lazy Sailor at Heart"). Determinedly inspirational, this book will appeal to admirers of Robert Fulghum et al." -Publisher's Weekly (starred)