Two of my fave reads are non-fiction: Peter Earle's "The Sack of Panama", which I can't recommend highly enough. Fun to read, tells a great story (with Henry Morgan, how can you go wrong?), and covers a lot of the Spanish side of the story. Unfortunately it's out of print. I got a copy from the library once, and my dog chewed the corner...so back I went to pay for the book, and at the time they weren't giving the books back! Took me three years to find another copy! And to top it off, now I work for the same library system.
Anyway, another good one, if a bit dry, is Peter Gerhard's "Pirates of the Pacific 1575-1742" (also known as Pirates of New Spain 1575-1742-go figure). Chock-full of interesting info on the "other ocean."
Love "Captain Blood" and the two sequels. "Black Swan" is great. "Stranger Tides" is also really good.
Didn't Black Lace books do a really bad pirate erotic novel? I'm gonna have to go rummage through my book shelves again...
