Title: The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook
Author: Jason Heller
Pages: 176
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: May 3rd, 2011
Where I got the book: Review Copy from Publisher

From the back cover:

For every would-be pirate who’s wished to cast off the shackles of landlubber society, here is the official guide to taking up seagoing roguishness the right way—er, that is, the right wrong way—well, let’s just say Jack’s way.

The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook gives you an insider’s perspective on all the dirty tricks of the buccaneer’s trade, helpfully arrrrrrrrrticulating such vital nautical information as:

•  How to Bury Treasure
•  How to Break a Curse
•  How to Fight a Tavern Full of Angry Men
•  How to Stay Alive When Your Ship Sinks
•  How to Cope with Mermaids

. . . and dozens more crucial skills you’ll want to master before hitting the high seas.

Review:

When I was asked if I would like to review The Jack Sparrow Handbook I was worried that I would discover the book to be nothing more of pictures of Johnny Depp dressed as the trademark character from the films. Yes, there are pictures of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow but far less than I anticipated. Instead I discovered this book to be a nice blend of humor, facts, and product placement.

For a book about pirates, this one isn’t half bad. There are six chapters that give step-by-stop instructions and how to do pirate-y things like treating a wound or cope with mermaids. Sometimes these instructions might be considered borderline helpful which caught me off guard. I expected this book to be nothing but a giant advertisement for the new film. Alas, this book might actually teach your something useful. It mixes sections titled “How to Vanquish Davy Jones” (nonsensical) with “How to Escape from Being Tied Up” (practical). Now, having never been tied up, I can’t vouch for the reliability of the steps it provides. They do, however, sound practical. Then there is the section about the five greatest pirates. A quick Google search led me to wikipedia pages for each of these five pirates. I can conclude that this book is reliable as, if not more than, wikipedia. You might just learn something.

The downside of this book is that it attempts to shoehorn the name Jack Sparrow in to the text at every opportunity it can. That’s probably the point of the book if I stop to consider it’s name. But it can be a little distracting if you are treating this book as a serious tome about pirates.

Closing Thoughts: I was surprised by the quality of information contained in The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook. It might actually contain useful information. But the constant shoehorning of Jack Sparrow’s name does get a little tiresome.

Question: Have you read any movie tie-in books? Were they good? Bad?

Christopher Moore is one of my top 5 favorite authors. While I haven’t read every single one of his books (yet), I have yet to be disappointed by the ones I have read. He recently did an interview over at Everything by Urban. What stuck me was the second part of the interview where he talks about E-books and Kindles and piracy. He seems to of the mindset that e-books will lead to rampant piracy and the decline of an author’s ability to make a living writing books.

Seems like very flawed logic if you ask me. If other blogs I read are to be believed, e-books are quite profitable. Mr. Moore might just come from a different generation that isn’t ready to embrace the idea that you can carry around 500+ books in your backpack and instantly download them at your convenience. He says that his biggest issue with e-books is a lack of page numbers. Really? That’s the worst thing about e-books for you? Luckily, Amazon seems to have solved that problem by adding real page numbers to books.

I think in the coming years readers are going to see a battle between established authors who favor traditional books and new authors embracing the e-book.

This weekend is Portland’s annual Pirate Festival! I went this morning. Here are some pictures…

Did you know that Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides is based off the book On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers? Did you also know that On Stranger Tides is considered to be one of the main inspirations for the Monkey Island video game series? It was seem this book is highly influential. I should probably get around to reading it huh?

Anyway, books and pirates! Two of my favorite subjects. Did you see the teaser trailer yet? It doesn’t tease much other than the fact they are making a 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I loved the first, hated the second, and never saw the third. Who knows how I will feel about the forth.

The Book Pirate welcomes a new shipmate to the crew, the Book Parrot! He is currently reading five books…updates to come.

Avast! Today be national talk like a pirate day. Arr. Celebrate by enjoying downloading Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1 for free.

You could also seek out the following pirate themed books:
- The Pirates!: An Adventure with Scientists & An Adventure with Ahab
- Pirateology
- Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
- A Pirate of Her Own

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is still sitting on the NY Times bestseller list (currently at #5). I worry about what the popularity of this book will do to the book industry. In particular, I think that this book will spawn a number or “me too” books similar to what happened after The Da Vinci Code and every book seemed to be about a hidden code.

To beat people to the punch, I have come up with some ideas:

First, Pirates make everything better.

The Old Man and the Sea and Pirates would be the perfect pop culture/classic literature crossover. I haven’t read The Old Man and the Sea but judging from the title it’s about an old man and the sea. I imagine that the the old man could run in to pirates while on the sea and, I dunno, join them while learning valuable life lessons.

Second, Ninjas make an excellient additions to novels.

Again, haven’t read War and Peace. But War and Peace and Ninjas could depic the invasion of Russia by France who hire a ninja army who get fought off by the Russians while learning valuable life lessons.

Yes, this may be a good idea.

Aardman Animations, the people behind such films as Chicken Run and every Wallace & Gromit feature, have announced that they are making a stop-motion adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s pirate themed novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The Aardman Animation website says that the film will be based on two books from the series (the first two?) and that the screenplay was written by Defoe himself. It will be directed be Peter Lord who directed Chicken Run. Above is some early concept art for the film.

Earlier this month (or late last month, I don’t remember) Defoe finally released the fourth book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon, in the US (after having been released in the UK last year). Currently that book is sitting comfortably in my To Read pile.

All I can say is YAY!