Adventurers, world travelers and boaters - as well as any reader who can appreciate a self-deprecating wit or who simply has a thirst for escapist literature - will thrill at the contents of Joshua Slocum's personal journal, published in 1900 under the name Sailing Alone Around the World. The experienced seaman was the very first person to sail around the world by himself, aboard his boat Spray, and his account is filled with near-death predicaments, descriptions of cultures from all over the globe and, perhaps most importantly to would-be adventurers, inspiration to step outside of one's comfort zone and see the world.