First You Have to Row a Little Boat - by Richard Bode (Paperback)

About the Book

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.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"A simple title leads to an inspirational story. All of us can live better lives thanks to Rick Bode's narrative." --Gary Jobson, America's Cup winner and ESPN sailing commentator

"Bode is adept at pulling messages out of ordinary experiences. The images he creates are simple and clear, and so are the lessons he derives from them." --Kirkus Reviews

"Bode uses his great love of sailing as a metaphor for the tides of life... Determinedly inspirational, this book will appeal to admirers of Robert Fulghum." --Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Even without knowing a lot about sailing, I was charming by its wisdom and passion." --Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"If you feel lost on this great sea of life, this book is a compass. Its powerful words will carry you like a gentle breeze toward companionship, toward love, toward the deepest self you are called to be. It will ultimately lead you home." --Regina Brett, author of God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours

"Leaving you inspired to follow a path of which you decide to take in life. Rick Bode allows the reader to ponder with his view, 'So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time.' The question for the reader then becomes do I stay onshore or embark on a journey into the unknown sea of life?" --Zach Railey, 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist in sailing

"Richard Bode uses his lifetime knowledge of sailing to steer his personal ship to a new port through a stormy time of life. Literally a voyage of discovery, he takes his silent desperation to the sea for solace. A must read for men stalled in "irons" and for the women who love them." --Joan Anderson, author of A Year by the Sea

"Richard Bode's writing is effortlessly sublime, like ghosting along on a smooth sea on a sunny day towards a destination even more rewarding than one had imagined. First You Have to Row a Little Boat reveals the most powerful but rarely discussed lures of messing about in boats. In Bode's fine memoir, sailors and landlubbers alike discover how sailing can transcend sport to shape our lifestyles and philosophies, and how the exploratory machines people use to venture upon the sea are not just playthings but powerful tools with which we plumb the depths of ourselves." -Steven Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea

"Such an imaginative way to compare our sport of sailing to life. I really enjoyed how Richard shares his experience of sailing and how subconsciously it was preparing him for growth. Keeping life simple and appreciating the little things rather than getting caught up in the race or the idea of the adventure is an aspect of life that is easily forgotten these days." --Anna Tunnicliffe, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in sailing

"This is a wonderful book, warm and thoughtful and beautifully written. It has a great deal of practical wisdom to offer us all in our complicated lives, but beyond that it is a work of sheer grace. No one who reads it will ever forget it." --Reeve Lindbergh, author of Forward from Here

"What a wonderful book it is! Pure Joy." --Walter Cronkite

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.