For the fourth consecutive year, The Dive Atlas of the World retains its top spot in the SCUBA Travel (scubatravel.co.uk) list of bestselling diving books and DVDs. A surprise entry at number three is a guide to the Italian island of Sardinia – a very popular diving destination last year. Another new entry is Shipwrecks from the Egyptian Red Sea, by Ned Middleton. Perhaps the best performer though is the Blue Planet DVD. This has not been out of the top ten since the list began in 2001.
Here are the top ten: figures in brackets show the previous year’s position.
1. Dive Atlas of the World: An Illustrated Reference to the Best Sites by Jack Jackson – 300 pages detailing some of the world’s best dive sites. (1)
2. Dive: The Ultimate Guide To 60 Of The Worlds Top Dive Locations by Monty Halls, Describes 60 of the world’s best diving areas, and highlights specific dives not to be missed whilst you are there (2)
3. Sardinia (Lonely Planet Regional Guides) by Paula Hardy – Complete, practical regional guide for independent travellers. Includes dedicated activities chapter including the best dive spots. (–)
4. Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World, by Tim Ecott – Tales of the characters and episodes in the history of diving: the sponge divers, the second world war saboteurs, the free divers, etc. (7)
5. Coral Reef Guide Red Sea (Coral Reef) by Ewald Lieske, Robert Myers – Covering jellyfish, corals, nudibranchs, starfish, sea urchins, fishes and turtles of the Red Sea. (–)
6. Dive in Style by Tim Simond, An illustrated book combining the best of travel, lifestyle and nature photography (4)
7. Coral Reef Fishes: Indo-Pacific and Caribbean by Ewald Lieske, Robert Myers, A compact, guide to over 2000 species of fish you might see whilst diving on coral reefs. (3)
8. Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Baja California by Walt Peterson – Guide to the dive sites of Baja California. (–)
9. The Blue Planet DVD, The BBC television series on DVD – action shots of the intriguing behaviour of the underwater world with commentary by David Attenborough. (9)
10. Shipwrecks from the Egyptian Red Sea by Ned Middleton – Eight years of research went into this accurate and definitive guide to the wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea. (–)
