Life on the Mississippi

I now know more about steamboats than is seemly for someone in today's world.

Joking aside, this book delivers on its promise of a good look at the life on the Mississippi River. And like the Mighty Mississip., it branches out into some unexpected places: corpse-watching in Germany, detailed descriptions of upperclass living rooms in St. Louis, trash-talking some author named Walter Scott, and even an extended scene from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, used to illustrate the fantastic swearing that rivermen used to do. The most memorable passages for me were the ones that described the shifting of the riverbanks and the scenery alongside them; quite evocative.

NOTE: This book is in the public domain, and can be found for free on the Kindle and on Project Gutenberg (and in your local library, of course!).

This is a very detailed memoir which focuses specifically on the author's life while apprenticing and working as a steam boat pilot, and later on travelling on the Mississippi river (why does this thing has so many double letters???!).
When I say “very detailed” I mean VERY detailed. We get a large portion of minute facts and feelings related to the pilot job, as well as quite a few anecdotes.

I very much enjoyed the read, though I suspect it will likely be considered rather dry and boring by the majority of readers.

The author spares no effort to describe the river, the job, the people, the boats, the organisations... There is a good amount of the characteristic for the author sarcasm, which made me cackle quite a few times.

It was a good relaxing read.