If you are enjoying AC4 (or about to), I recommend this history book called "Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates, by David Cordingly.

The book is fun because it deals with many of the characters and locations in AC4 and provides nice historical background. Also goes in to the pirate haven in Madagascar, Corsairs in the Mediterranean and other pirate stuff not in AC4. Also because the book covers both real history and pirates in our pop culture, its never too dry or dull.

Descriptions in the book of pirates having to throw cannons and ammo overboard to stay afloat in bad storms seem like it could be a cool gameplay element in future pirate games...

That actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to check it out.

Anything about Cochrane is good.

Ive read up on several articles on Wikipedia. Blackbeard's blockade of Charleston sounded fucking insane.

Having a ship with less guns sounds like the opposite of cool.

If you just want a fantastic read about the sea and whaling..or just what real sailing was like read "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick.

"...In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats."

It is a great read, it keeps your attention, and you could not make up a story as weird and wild as what really happened.

Alright but what if we video gamed it up by having the ocean than become a pet that you could arm with cannons by dropping them during storms?

Can I feed the ocean cannons and turn it into a Master System?

Wikipedia. I didn't know Oak Island was in AC3 Oak Island AC3

From wikipedia: "One theory is that the pit holds a pirate treasure hoard buried by Captain Kidd or possibly Edward Teach (Blackbeard), who claimed he buried his treasure "where none but Satan and myself can find it."[17] Some also hold to the theory that Kidd conspired with Henry Every and Oak Island was used as a pseudo community bank between the two."

I just knew these pirates were in AC4.

I have played neither of the games. I just love the Oak Island mystery pit. WHAT is down there?

Empire of Blue Water, by Stephen Talty, is also very good. It focuses on the career of Henry Morgan, but there is a lot of discussion of Blackbeard, Ben Hornigold, and many of the other pirates depicted in AC4. If you're up for a fictionalized account, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers is awesome (ignore its connection to the execrable Disney feature film).

Yaaar!

Thanks for the recommendations... sure I could read a pirate book.

It's immediately making me think I want a Hardcore History on pirates.

@sonofhotpie: cool I'll check these out. I enjoyed Tim Powers book Last Call a lot.

@monkeyking1969: In the Heart of the Sea is greatness. Moby-Dick is one of my favorite novels and reading the story of the inspiration for it was cool.

The problem with pirate history is, despite how many books come out trying to give a clear picture of them, there is very little we have to work with in terms of historical evidence. It is no coincidence that the book mentioned by the OP covers a wide range of piracy and yet is rather short, for a history book: there is not a lot of information that we have. And too much of our knowledge stems from the early 18th century book A General History of the Pyrates.

In order to really learn about pirates, you'd be better off learning about the nations, governments, social structures, and living conditions extant at the time. Knowing those things gives you a lot more context for who these people were and why so many different images of them have come down to us.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sodomy-Pirate-Tradition-Seventeenth-Century-Caribbean/dp/0814712363

The only pirate history book you need.

The only one I've read is The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks.

That's one of the great draws of the AC series, spend a lot of time reading wiki to find out more about the presented historical figures, being a researcher for that series must really fun.

Also, watch this - Awesome documentary