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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living
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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living Paperback - 1995

by Richard Bode

Using sailing as a metaphor for life, "this brilliantly written elegy gently teaches the fundamental principles of life and how to navigate its shoals" (M. Scott Peck, M.D., author of The Road Less Traveled.


Summary

Written from the point of view of a grown man looking back on his childhood, and reflecting on what the experience of learning to sail taught him about the lessons of life, First You Have to Row a Little Boat has the makings of an inspirational classic. With each brief chapter telling the story of a young man's initiation to adulthood, the bay on which he sails becomes a universe of sorts, teaching him new lessons about making choices, adapting to change, and becoming his own person with every journey he takes. Filled with the spiritual wisdom and thought-provoking discoveries that marked such books as Walden, The Prophet, and the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, First You Have to Row aLittle Boat is a wondrous and magical book that will enchant both sailors and non-sailors alike, but most of all, anyone who seeks large truths in small things.

From the publisher

Now with a brand new foreword from New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Zaslow. FIRST YOU HAVE TO ROW A LITTLE BOAT first hit shelves in the mid 1990s and has been inspiring readers ever since. Written by a grown man looking back on his childhood, it reflects on what learning to sail taught him about life: making choices, adapting to change, and becoming his own person. The book is filled with the spiritual wisdom and thought-provoking discoveries that marked such books as Walden, The Prophet, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. For nearly twenty years, it has enchanted and endeared sailors and non-sailors alike, but foremost, anyone who seeks large truths in small things. This refurbished edition will find a place in the hearts of a whole new generation of readers.

First line

When I was a young man I made a solemn vow.

Details

  • Title First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living
  • Author Richard Bode
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Grand Central Publishing, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • Date 1995-06-01
  • ISBN 9780446670036 / 0446670030
  • Weight 0.4 lbs (0.18 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 in (20.07 x 12.95 x 1.52 cm)
  • Themes
    • Event: Graduation
    • Topical: New Age
  • Library of Congress subjects Spiritual life, Sailing
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 92050528
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

Richard Bode worked at McGraw Hill and was editorial director and chief speechwriter at Burston-Marsteller. As a freelance writer, he contributed to Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Sail, Sports Illustrated. He is also the author of Blue Sloop at Dawn (1979), which was excerpted in Sports Illustrated, Newsday Sunday Magazine, and Sail, and wrote the award-winning essay To Climb the Wind. He died in 2003 of liver cancer.
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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living
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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living

by Richard Bode

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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living

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First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living

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First You Have to Row a Little Boat : Reflections on Life and Living

by Bode, Richard

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