Good books about the Bahamas
General guidebooks
Lonely Planet Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos. Lonely Planet Publications
The Rough Guide to the Bahamas. published by Rough Guides
Travel accounts
Out-Island Doctor by Evans W. Cottman. Landfall Press Inc.
Fascinating tale of a high school teacher from Indiana who traveled around the Bahamas as an "unqualified practitioner" of medicine in the 1940s, and finally settled on Great Abaco. If you like this one, try to find My Castle in the Air (same author), which describes Evans' effort to build a "castle" on Great Abaco in the 1950's. (He succeeded and his castle can be seen in Marsh Harbour today.)
Inagua: An Island Sojourn by Gilbert C. Klingel. Lyons and Burford, Publishers.
A couple of amateur ecologists on a collecting trip for the American Museum of Natural History are shipwrecked on Great Inagua in the 1930's. One of them stayed and explored the island. He later returned and explored the surrounding reefs with rather primitive dive gear.
Natural history
The Ephemeral Islands: A Natural History of the Bahamas by David G. Campbell
Identification guides
Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Paul Humann. New World Publications, Inc.
Reef Creature Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Paul Humann. New World Publications, Inc.
Reef Coral Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Paul Humann. New World Publications, Inc.
The Collins Guide to the Birds of New Providence and the Bahamas Islands by P. G. C. Brudenell-Bruce
Back to Bahamas main page
Abacos - Andros - Exuma Cays - Great Exuma