Books About Belize – Island Library

Island Library and Reading List

Slickrock specializes in island adventures Belize-style. Because we own the island, we can really invest in our facility which includes seaside cabanas, tons of sport gear, and a huge dining hall which houses our ever-growing library. Hours on the island are spent identifying underwater creatures, or reading up on the Mayans and Belize sea kayaking techniques. This also serves as a reading list while preparing for our trip.

Review of Lonely Planet Belize

Although we have always been partial to the Lonely Planet Belize guidebook since we were featured on the cover of their first edition (2002), still we feel we can state without bias that this is the best of the guidebooks available about Belize. Even though we have been traveling and working in Belize for over 30 years, this book still helps us out enormously when we visit a region of the country we are less familiar with, or when answering questions about Belize we don’t know the answer to. There are many regions of Belize, and this book provides detailed info about each, and also covers the area of nearby Guatemala that contains the huge ruin complex of Tikal. It gives insights into where the crowds are, which restaurants to frequent, all of the ruins and caves, and even nighttime entertainment in each major town. The most recent version was published in late 2016, they will probably come out with a new version soon. We highly recommend this book.

Belize Guidebooks

• Belize Moon Handbook, 2015, Lebawit Lily Girma
• Lonely Planet Belize, 2013, Mara Vorhees
• Hunter Travel Guides, Adventure Guide to Belize, 6th Edition, 2007, Vivien Lougheed
• Cruising Guide to Belize and Mexico’s Caribbean Coast, 2007, Freya Rauscher
• Fodor’s Belize 2007, Sarah Sper and Christina Knight
• Hidden Belize, 4th Edition, 2006, Richard Harris
• Frommer’s Belize, 1st Edition, 2005, Eliot Greenspan
• The Rough Guide to Belize, 3rd Edition, 2004, Peter Eltringham

Water Sport Books

• Surfing Illustrated – A Visual Guide to Wave Riding, John Robison
• Kiteboarding Vision, Eric Beaudonnat
  The Complete Book of Sea Kayaking, Derik Hutchinson
• The Coastal Kayakers Manual, Randel Washburne
• Eskimo Rolling, Derik Hutchinson
• Sea Kayak Rescue, Roger Schumann & Jan Shriner
• Canoeing & Kayaking Manual, American Canoe Association, Laurie Guillion
• Diving Belize, Ned Middleton
• Diving and Snorkeling Guide to Belize, Franz O. Meyer
• Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Belize, Mark Webster
• Roatan & Honduras’ Bay Islands Diving-Snorkeling Guide, S. Collins
  Scuba – Safe and Simple, John Reseck, Jr.
• Down Time: Great Writers on Diving, Ed, Casey and Jim Kittrell
• Padi Open Water Diver Manual

The Underwater World

• Reef Coral Identification, Paul Humann
  Reef Creature Identification, Paul Humann
• Reef Fish Identification, Paul Humann
• Reef Fish Behavior, Ned Deloach
• Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral
• Reef Fish Behavior, R. & J. Wilson
• World Atlas of Coral Reefs, Mark Spalding
• Sharks: Silent Hunters of the Deep, Reader’s Digest
• Secrets of the Seas, Reader’s Digest
• Guide to Marine Life: Caribbean-Bahamas-Florida, M. Snyderma
• Marine Life of the Caribbean, A. Jones & N. Sefton
• Belize Barrier Reef Ecosystem, New York Zoological Society
• Collectible Florida Shells, R. T. Abbott
• A Field Guide to the Shells, Percy Morris
• A Field Guide to Shells, National Audubon Society
• Florida’s Fabulous Seashells and Seashore Life, Winston Williams
• Echinoids of Carrie Bow Cay Belize, Porter M. Kier
• Ocean Almanac, R. Hendrickson
• Seashore Life of Florida and the Caribbean, G. Voss
• Shoreline, B. Taylor
• Metamorphosea, M. Aw
• Dangerous Marine Creatures, Carl Edmonds, M.D.
• Venomous & Toxic Marine Life of the World, P. Cunningham & P. Goetz
• Exploring the Deep Frontier, S. Earle and A. Giddings
• World Beneath the Sea, James Dugan
• Guide to Corals and Fishes, Idaz Greenberg
• Pisces Guide to Caribbean Reef Ecology, William S. Alevizon
• Cephalopod Behavior, Roger Hanlon
• Octopus and Squid, The Soft Intelligence, Jacques-Yves Cousteau
• The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures, Norman Meinkoth
• Coral Reef Fishes, E. Lieske & R. Myers
• Life in the Oceans, Norbert Wu
• Let’s Discover the Sea (Children’s Book)

Sport Fishing

• Bonefishing With a Fly, Randall Kaufmann
• Practical Saltwater Fly Fishing, Mark Sosin
• Fly Fishing for Bonefish, Dick Brown
  McClane’s New Standard Fishing
• Encyclopedia and International Angling Guide, A. J. McClane
• Sportsman’s Guide to Game Fish, Byron Dalrymple
• Fly Fishing Basics, Dave Hughes

History

• The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, Caroline Alexander
• Selkirk’s Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe, Diana Souhami
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Thieves of the Sea: Corsairs, Freebooters and Buccaneers, 1493-1700, Cruz Apestegui
• The Pirates, Time Life
• Over the Edge of the World, Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, Laurence Bergreen
• British Honduras: The invention of a colonial territory – Mapping and Spacial Knowledge in the 19th Century, Odile
• Family and People all Well… An Account of the Occurrences in the Business of Mahagany and Logwood Cutting in the Bay of Honduras in 1789, Ray Murra

Weather and Survival at Sea

• Weather: Nature in Motion, Anne H. Oman
• Earth Shock: Climate Complexity and the Force of Nature, Andrew Robinson
• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by P. Hawken
• Demon of the Waters – The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe, Gregory Gibson
• The Ship and the Storm, Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome, Jim Carrier
• Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, Erik Larson
• The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger
• Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea, Tami Ashcraft
• Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
• The Endurance, Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Caroline Alexander
• Fastnet, John Rousmaniere
• Sailing Alone Around the World, Captain Joshua Slocum

Wildlife

• Birds of Belize, H. Lee Jones
• Birds of North America, National Geographic Society
• The Ecotravellers’ Wildlife Guide to Belize and Northern Guatemala, Les Beletsky
• A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and N. Central America, S. Howell
• The Last Flight of the Scarlett Macaw, One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird, Bruce Barcott
• A Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Maya World: The Lowlands of Mexico, Northern Guatemala, and Belize, Julian C. Lee

Adventure Travel

• The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, Paul Theroux
• Sea Kayaking, Outside Magazine Adventure Travel Series, J. Hanson
• Deep Water Passage, A Spiritual Journey at Midlife, Ann Linnea

Belize and The Region

• Understanding Belize, A Historical Guide, Alan Twigg
• Heartdrum, Spirit Possession in Garifuna Communities of Belize, B. Foster
• Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice – An Ethnobotonist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rainforest, Mark Plotkin, PhD
• The Nation We are Making: Belize, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
• The Making of Belize, Anne Sutherland
• Food for Thought – Chronicles of Belize, Karla Heusner
• Snapshots of Belize, An Anthology of Short Fiction
• I, Rigoberta Menchú; An Indian Woman in Guatemala, E. Burgos-Debray
• A Belizean Rain Forest, The Community Baboon Sanctuary, R. H. Horwich
• Caribbean, James Michener
• The Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, P. Hargreaves
• Life World Library, Central America, Harold Lavine
• Life World Library, The West Indies, Carter Harman
• Guatemala, Central America’s Living Past, Lila Perl
• A Geography of Belize, Cubola Productions
• Taking Stock: Belize at 25 Years of Independence, Jaime J. Awe, Candy Gonzalez, Cruzita Ken, Melanie McField & Nadia Bood
• Nothing to Lose, Ray Lightburn
  Belize maps

The Maya

• Lost Cities of the Maya, Claude Baudez and Sydney Picasso
• 101 Questions and Answers About The Ancient Maya of Belize, Jaime Awe
• Maya Cities and Sacred Caves, a Guide to the Maya Sites of Belize, Jaime Awe
• Mexico, Michael D. Coe
• An Archaeological Guide to Northern Central America: Belize Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, Joyce & Jerry Kelly
• Mesoamerica’s Ancient Cities: Aerial Views of Precolumbian Ruins in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, William M. Ferguson
• Time Among the Maya, Ronald Wright
• Tikal: A Handbook of the Ancient Mayan Ruins, William R. Coe
• Warlords and Maize Men, A Guide to the Maya Sites of Belize, government publication
• History Carved in Stone: A Guide to the Archaeological Park of the Ruins of Copan, William L. Fash and Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle
• Secrets of the Talking Jaguar – A Mayan Shaman’s Journey to the Heart of the Indigenous Soul, by Martin Prechtel

Jungle Ecology and Botany

• A Naturalist’s Guide to the Tropics, Marco Lambertini
• Central American Jungles, D. Moser
• Trees of the Caribbean, S.A. Seddon and G.W. Lennox
• Mangos and More, A Rough Guide to the Local Fruit Trees and Flowers in Belize, Lisa Carne

Fiction

• The Bounty Trilogy: Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea and Pitcairn’s Island, Charles Nordhoff and James Hall
• Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stephenson
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville
• The Cay, Theodore Taylor
• Timothy of the Cay, Theodore Taylor
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
• Tikal, A Novel About the Maya, Daniel Peters
• A Pirate Looks at Fifty, Jimmy Buffett
• Tales From Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett
• Where is Joe Merchant? Jimmy Buffett
• Belize, A Novel, Carlos Ledson Miller
• Belizean Blues, a Novel, Beth Fellows

Other Topics

• The Stars, H. A. Rey
• Oxford Atlas of the World
• National Geographic Concise Atlas of the World
• The Yoga Bible, Christina Brow
• How to Weave Hawaiian Coconut Palm
• Fronds, A Step-by-Step Guide, Jim Widess
• Kriol-Inglish Dikshinery, Belize Kriol Project
• Rise Up Singling, The Group Singing Songbook, Peter Blood and Annie Patterson

Medical

• The Outward Bound Wilderness First-Aid Handbook, Jeffrey Isaac
• Wilderness Medicine Handbook, Wilderness Medicine Institute