ok so my new job means i'll be spending countless hours sitting around on a boat (hard life ey) and that means i need some new reading material
so hit me with all the good ones... surfing related is preferred 
thanks in advance
There are so many don't know where to start
Heres a few
Irvine Walsh - anything by this guy. If you can get your head around the written scottish slang then he is for you. Try Acid House, Maribou Stork Nightmares, porno or Trainspotting
George Orwell - 1984 The sheer notion that someone or something can rape you of your deepest held emotions brought shivers down my spine
Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolf
Khaled Hosseini - Kite Runner and A thousand splendid suns. Very Confronting. This guy knows how to tell a story
A.S Byatt - Possession Complete Literary genius.
That'll do you for now. None have anything whatsoever to do with wind water or surf.
Surf wise, you'll love the latest Tim Winton, "Breath". His Locky Leonard books are aimed at younger readers, but I still enjoyed them. If you like his writing then Dirt Music is also great.
For humour try Terry Pratchett's discworld series, best to start at the beggining, but it doesn't matter that much.
Douglas Adams, "Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy"
Sci Fi / fantasy Orson Scott Card, the Alvin series is really good.
Stephen Donaldson, "The Gap" and "Thomas Covenant" series
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (all five books in the trilogy)
The universe makes a lot more sense after reading it
My Fathers Rifle by Hiner Saleem , small easy to read
Childhood memories of being bought up in Kurdistan
by a young bloke like any of us.
We know not, how lucky we are
we cannot pick our parents, its just luck, natural selection
Yellow pages A-K (Sydney-2004 edition)
couldn't get into the L-Z sequel (except for the sailboard section).
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everythinghttp://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171
You might try "Slaughterhouse 5", by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Great anti-war book, based around the WW2 bombing of Dresden.
(Was made into a good movie too, which is often not the case with good books)
And, definitely, another vote for HHGTTG.
The Kon Tiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl, great boat book.
Good list so far - everyone should read the Short History of Nearly Everything.
Hitchhikers Guide. 1984. 
World War Z by Max Brooks.
Great book set ten years after the world war between Zombies and humans. Critiques the issues we face today. The recollection of the Battle of Yonkers is a classic piece of writing.
On my coffee table right now
Ralph
Windsurf
Sporting Shooter
can tell it is a guy's house huh 
I am a kiter so I struggle a bit with reading some of the more learned stuff but I really enjoyed,
The art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama
Any of the Stone Barrington novels by Stuart Woods
And
All the Archie Mcnally novels by Lawrence Sanders
If you're looking for fiction, I would say anything by Dean Koontz is definately worth a look.
Gotta go with Hitchhiker's Guide and George Orwell too (although I prefer Animal Farm to 1984).
D
Any Stephen King book.
In particular:
The Stand
Bag of bones
Desperation and The Regulators (have to be read as a pair to get the best effect)
From a Buick 8
The talisman
Black House
JB
Couldn't even find any advice on how to change a tyre either. 
memorable books for me
ship of gold in the deep blue sea by gary kinder (factual shipwreck treasure etc- awesome)
left for dead - (fastnet yacht survivor)
catch22 - WW2 romp
lord of the flies - george orwell?
farewell to arms - hemmingway
the longships - red orm ledgend
the last king of scotland
the road - cormack mcarthy
prince of tides - (nothing like movie)
the ship that hunted itself
endurance - about shackleton
Anything from Stephen King, Clive Cussler, Michael Connolly, Peter Straub, Tim Winton and Bryce Courtney.
Oh and Archie comics and S Club Seven.
The Karma Sutra - could be quite gripping if your on the boat alone!
The Wilbur Smith books are OK and there an ongoing story (get them from a second hand book shop)
The Aquitaine Progression - quite gripping but in a different way by Robert Ludlum - read it in three days of howling NWrs one winter at the Bluff in WA
Mao's last dancer - nice story about poverty in China by Li Cunxin
Einstein - the A life in science
The book about the Sydney Hobart yacht by Rob Mundal - could't put that one down - the race the year it relly blew - then again probably not a good idea while boating
The lord of the Flys
The Enid Blyton collection 
All time Favourite Monty Pythons big red book
Happy Reading
for one amazingly smart son of a beach, maurice cotterell will blow you away,
life of pi was cool for something light with a twist
and dr seuss will have the laugh last from us all
Agree with a lot of these suggestions.
If you like fantasy try Magician by Raymond E. Feist and the series that follows. Also, most anything by David Gemmel, particularly his Druss the Legend series.
Couldn't even find any advice on how to change a tyre either. 
