PIRATES

As long as I can remember, I've had a particular interest in pirates (which extends from my interests in most things nautical).  I believe this was first sparked from either reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson or Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe as a young boy.  Or, perhaps I saw one of the earlier film adaptations first.  To be honest, I don't really recall...

This interest in pirates was rekindled in part with our recent viewing of "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and then again this morning by reading several Wikipedia articles on the subject matter.  Following a few external links on the "piracy" article led me to a wealth of interesting sites (including online texts of Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe which I'm planning to print-out and read at my earliest convenience).  And that in turn caused me to do a search for pirate books on Amazon.com and I've just placed an order for Under the Black Flag : The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly (2006) and The Mammoth Book of Pirates : Over 25 True Tales of Devilry and Daring by the Most Infamous Pirates of All Time edited by Jon E. Lewis (2006).  (Of course, now I'll have to wait for a month or more for the books to arrive!).

My interest, however, doesn't extend so far as to wanting to dress up like a pirate (well, perhaps if there's a decent Halloween party on Phuket this October), or even talking like a pirate (there's actually a day — September 19, International Talk Like A Pirate Day, dedicated to doing just that!).  I'm just drawn by the sense of mystery that seems to surround pirate stories, both real and fictional.