Superstitions of the Sea

A Digest of Beliefs, Customs, and Mystery

By: James G. Clary

Narrated by: John Rayment

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jim Clary presents a compelling and riveting digest of beliefs, customs, and mystery in Superstitions of the Sea. Clary focuses on the vast array of strange, mythical, and often comical beliefs of mariners from ancient times to the present. Collecting the various topics for years, Clary found that maritime superstition was weaved throughout every fabric of his study. The folklore was so interesting that it often lured him far away from his subject search and held him spellbound for hours at a time.

Clary offers a unique and encompassing classification of maritime superstitions, including anecdotes on: animals, burial, charms, demons, evil eyes, figureheads, ghost ships, hexes, icebergs, Jonahs, knots, launchings, myths, navigation, omens, people, romance, shipwrecks, triangles, the unexplained, Vikings, and weather phenomena. He combed through countless age-old volumes and interviewed today's sailors to bring to the listener incredible yarns and unbelievable recorded facts enshrouded in mystery.

©1994 James Clary (P)2015 James G. Clary

RELAXING

Relaxing Therapeutic helps me sleep without stress.
Especially when put in slower motion.
Feeds my fix of Interesting and mysterious stories.

adventurous

The only thing better than a book listing interesting superstitions of sailors is a historical explanation and examples from history that helped develop that list . what a ride!

Interesting read

Kept interest and has lots of information, but could have been written in a more exciting manner.

Could have been so much better.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I listen to books while doing other things. I can hardly tear myself away from Game of Thrones books, for example, despite having watched the TV series and despite the fairly simple storylines. This book about superstitions of the sea was read in a pretty boring manner. I did know a good number of the factoids, and learned a few more, but if I had been in a bookstore I would have known not to buy this book.

What didn’t you like about John Rayment’s performance?

No spark, no change of voice inflections. Frankly, he sounded bored and it distracted me from the book itself.

Did Superstitions of the Sea inspire you to do anything?

I'm still thinking of returning it.

An easy listen

Clear narration, interesting topic, a good book for background listening whilst cooking or otherwise tasking

Potentially interesting subject poorly presented

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Better narrative flow and more lively narration

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The book consists of brief notes about maritime traditions and folklore with no linking between them. Combined with the very monotonous narration this makes it rather like listening to someone reading out a phone directory.

How could the performance have been better?

Better narrative flow and more lively narration

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Well researched, plenty of content

An excellent download.

This is a very comfortable listen. None stop ghost stories and superstitions.
So many you will be dipping in and out forever.