There's not much surf lit about, and when I say lit, I mean fiction. Here's a list of all the stuff I know about, with comments on the ones I've read. I'm including non-fiction because some of them are essential reads as well, and because otherwise surfers would look like the illiterate bums we're sometimes still accused of being.

Got one I haven't? Email me. I'm slowly putting Amazon links up, and if you buy from here I'll get some pennies, but I don't mind if you don't ;-)

(Why do this at all? Because I can. And because it's what I write a lot of myself, so it's market research.)

Coming up!

I've done a few reviews recently, which I will post up here soon (i.e. after they've been in Carve ;-)
Bunker Spreckles - this one's cool
West of Jesus
Can't You Get Along With Anyone? - Alan Weisbecker
Return to Water, Kimball Taylor
September - buy this one, it's a lovely mag-style trip through Ireland

Fiction
Peter Benson - Riptide. Amazing. Not known as a surfy author, and this is his only surfy book. Hard to get hold of but his unique, beautiful style, particularly descriptions of riding a wave, sex and the Cornish coastline are wonderful. When he's passionate about something, he's a poet laureate.
Kem Nunn - Dogs of Winter, Tapping the Source, Tijuana Straits . The last one's great, I can't remember the others it's been so long, but I don't remember being that impressed.
Eugene Burdick - The Ninth Wave. Yet to read.
Fiona Capp - Night Surfing. I suppose I'll have a go.
Daniel Duane - Caught Inside. Have read it, can't remember it so don't think it was that wonderful.
Allan Weisbecker - In Search of Captain Zero. Have read it…
Cosmic Banditos -
Stories from the Surf: The Lost Coast Hardcover - Drew Kampion. Short stories from a surf lit legend in the non-fiction area anyway. Some of these are great, some are poor, some are plain awful! Some of them don't even seem finished/polished at all.
Frederick Kohner - Gidget. Ah, the original. I didn't like the heroine much and it all seemed more about boys than surfing. Still interesting to read but in the end rather disappointing.

Tom Wolfe
Jack London
Herman Melville
Mark Twain

Travelogue/True Tales
Tom Anderson - Riding the Magic Carpet. Good, and British! Buy buy buy!
Matt Warshaw - Surf Zone collected surf writings. Best of surf journalism, always something just right for what you want to read at the time. Great to dip into. Keep in the car for those waiting-for-someone moments.
Surf Stories - best of ASL. Wicked. I love ASL.
Fiona Capp - That Oceanic Feeling. Lots of people rate her, I thought it was utterly utterly crap and I could do better…if I get off my ass. I really wanted it to be good as well, cos I was on the Mornington Peninsula (the frame for her tale) at the time, but it was patchy and bored me. Sorry…
The Big Drop - Big wave tales. Not read much of it yet.
Surf Nation - Alex Wade. Interesting and well worth a read. Will post full review written for CARVE soon…when it's been published in the mag already!
Surfing's Greatest Misadventures -
Matt Warshaw - Mavericks
Andy Martin - Walking on Water, Stealing the Wave
Matt Griggs - Surfers . Interviews with surfers, good except the Slater one, where he didn't get an interview with the big man, so cobbled something together so they could put the magic 'Slater' name on the cover. Shame on you, cos the rest of it's damn insightful and interesting.
Eddie Would Go - I want to read this next.
MP -The best. Absolute favourite, esp if you've been to Oz.
Pipe Dreams - Slater. Pretty good but he shoulda waited.
Nat's Nat And That's That - said to be really good.
Surfer's Year - occy
Bustin Down the Door - rabbit. Really good and should be read before/after/alongside MP. Different views of the same time in surfing's great rise. Fascinating.
Natural Born Man - Biography of Jack Johnson comprised of pasted-together interview clips by a man who doesn't surf and doesn't seem to have ever met the guy. Badly edited too. Awful.
Beach Boys Brian Wilson - not really a surfer…
Bethany Hamilton - Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family and Fighting to Get Back on the Board - Very very overtly Christian! But an amazing story (surviving a shark attack in Hawaii) made all the more amazing by the fact she's still beating damn good surfers in comps. One all bratty teenagers should be given.

Other - history culture etc
Girl In the Curl - I've lost the damn thing but I love it.
Stoked! A history of surf culture Drew Kampion. The perfect surf coffee table book. Lush.

Ben Marcus - The Surfboard: Art, Style, Stoke. Review from CARVE issue 92 (yes, this is a premature release of currently confidential stuff!):
Ignore all the exclamation marks on the jacket and flyleaf, inside this is a serious (but never boring) look at the detail of the history of the surfboard from Hawaiian planks right up to the present day. The progression is clearly as natural and logical as every surfer’s search for that magic board, and is beautifully presented.
You could be happy just looking at the pictures, but this is one coffee table book that should spend a lot more time in your hands than on the table, because the prose is just as fascinating — nuggets of absolute gold mined with a skilful hand. Surfboards come from the Fernando Aguerre Collection (a huge and varied one) and there are plenty of action and historical photos helping to tell the tale.
I thought I knew quite a bit about the history of the surfboard, gleaned from years of reading surf mags and books, but this book is guaranteed to tell you many, many things you never knew. Did surfing really die off totally with the coming of the missionaries to Hawaii? Have you ever seen pictures and brochures from the Swastika Surfboard Company from California? Ever seen a picture of Marilyn Monroe (then still Norma Jean Baker) at a surfers’ beach party? Or the rubble of the Clark Foam factory? Get this book, there’s all that and so much more. Riveting.

Matt Warsaw - Surf Movie Tonite Surf Movie Poster Art 1957 - 2004
Craig Stecyk, David Carson - Surf CultureThe Art History of Surfing
Switch-foot. Buy it, this is fucking genius. Art, music, stoke, style and of course surf. Just something for everyone. Coffee table fodder but again more on the lap.
Surfing Icons (arty)
Waves. Okay this is just pictures of waves and lovely quotes, but really, that's perfection for a surfer girl and writer. Love it.

Guidebooks
too many to mention - ones that include stories/essays as well like Footprint are great travel companions.

Learning
Richard Bennett - The Surfer's Mind. Absolute essential if you are into your surfing and not just bobbing about like a twat at Towan getting in my way.
Taj's Book of Surfing - ace, funny, informative, stokes you up. Not sure if you can get it in the UK.
Sanoe Lake and Steven Jarrett - Surfer Girl. Like the title. Book very American and 'gee' but a good intro to surfing aimed at teenagers I guess. Good fun.
SurfGirl's Guide to Surfing - Probably mostly written by Steve England. The best ;-)

Short Fiction
Surf magazine used to publish short stories but alas it is no longer. Alf's still about though.
Here's one online from Times writer and freelancer Alex Wade - A Surfer: Old. I like it, but have to admit to being confused by the ending.