Concierge

No matter how often you visit these unique islands of Southwest Florida, or how many years you have lived on them, there's always more to learn. Guidebooks, history books, even fiction with a local setting can help you make your way around the islands in the absence of a personal tour guide. Libraries are terrific information sources, but if you like to have the facts close at hand for keeps, you can purchase island-related books at a wide variety of places.

It's no surprise to hear Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum Director Jos‚ Leal report that two of its top-selling books are by the late malacologist R. Tucker Abbott, a founder of the museum. They are Collectible Florida Shells and Seashells of North America. The latter is an introductory book, which, Leal explains, "will never stop selling. He has the magic touch." Another shell book that museum-goers often make a beeline for is A Field Guide to the Shells of the Florida Coast by Jean Andrews. 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road, Sanibel, 941/395-2233.

Marilyn Niehoff, a volunteer at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, says Richard W. Workman's acclaimed Growing Native has always been a big

seller and is being reprinted. Also recommended is The Guide to Florida Wildflowers by Walter Kingsley Taylor. "Don't forget that the classics always do well," Niehoff adds, such as Marjory Stoneman Douglas's River of Grass. 3333 Sanibel-Captiva Road, Sanibel, 941/472-2329.

Naturally, a sought-after book at the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center is Ding's Cartoons by the late environmentalist/editorial cartoonist. The treasurer of the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Society, Jeanne Rankin, says valuable resource books include Golden Guides, which are small books that fit in your pocket. Illustrated coffee-table books known as the Florida's Fabulous series feature such topics as trees, birds, wading birds, mammals, and flowers. Rankin adds, "We are also getting quite a nice collection of nature books for children, which grandmas like to give." 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel, 941/472-1100.

From the aforementioned series, Florida's Fabulous Seashells by Williams and Carmichael is popular with customers at Showcase Shells. Also recommended is A Compendium of Seashells by S. Peter Dance. It's a full-color guide to world shells, and the third edition has just been reprinted. 1614 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, 941/472-1971.

Of course, nature and guidebook lovers can have a field day at local bookstores. MacIntosh Book Shop employee Megan Friedlund says a super seller within the past year has been The Sanibel Kaleidoscope, a shell identification paperback by Harlan Wittkopf. Full-color Sanibel Island by Lynn Stone is always being requested. Tourists often choose How To Live on an Island, a paperback by Sandy Gingras. A staple on many bookshelves around Sanibel and Captiva is Sea Shell Islands, a history of Sanibel and Captiva by Elinore Dormer. The perennial favorite covers the life of the islands from thousands of years ago through the Calusas, the pioneer families, into the 1980s.

Just published is The Sarasota, Sanibel Island, and Naples Book, from the Great Destinations series. Written by Sanibel-based travel writer Chelle Koster Walton, it covers history, lodging, culture, recreation, and shopping from Sarasota Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Sanibel and the Island Coast (Cayo Costa to Bonita Beach), Naples, and the South Coast down to Everglades City. Also, Friedlund says a fairly new novel that is selling well is The Cuckoo's Gift by A.N. Steinberg, which is about a woman who lived on Sanibel. 2365 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, 941/472-1447.

Joan Simonds, owner of The Island Book Nook, lists several titles that customers enjoy. They include Charles LeBuff's Sanybel Light: A Historical Autobiography, and Sharon M. Doremus's Shorebirds and Seagrapes, which came out in 1995 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Island Inn. Two other well-received books by Sanibel residents are Pedaling Power by Marianne Strickland, and Sanibel Island's Eyes by Chelle Koster Walton. Simonds also mentions Refuge in a Shrinking World by Mary Ruth Stegman, and The Nature of Things on Sanibel by George Campbell, which "touches lightly on many things." 2330 Palm Ridge Road, Sanibel, 941/472-6777.

Sanibel Island Bookshop employee Beth Collette notes that in addition to all the books named above, mysteries written about the islands are enormously popular. Pine Island-based author Randy Wayne White is known for Sanibel Flats, Captiva, The Heat Islands, and North of Havana, among others. His latest is The Mangrove Coast. Another area writer, Sean Michael Dever, has written Blind Pass and a new mystery, So Others May Live. Sanibel is the setting for a spy novel, The Sanibel Arcanum, written by part-time island resident Thomas D. Cochrun. 1711 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, 941/472-5223.

Ted Levering used to live on the property where Paradise of Captiva Shops is located, and it's fitting that his book, The Other Side of the Bridge, can be purchased there. The book is categorized as fiction, but is based on pre-causeway island life. The shops' owners, John and Denise Beggs, also stock True Tales of Old Captiva. It features oral histories that were compiled by members of the Captiva Civic Association and Captiva Library Board. Part of the book's proceeds go to the library. Of course, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's classic, Gift from the Sea, written on Captiva in 1955, continues to be a favorite. "The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient," she wrote. "To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach-waiting for a gift from the sea." 11508 Andy Rosse Lane, Captiva, 941/395-2988.

On Boca Grande, Ruhama's Books in the Sand owner Hollis dePaula says one of the finest guidebooks available is the new National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida by Peter Alden. She is also fond of The Art of South Florida Gardening by Harold Songdahl and Coralee Leon and Florida Plants for Wildlife by Craig Huegel, a guide to native trees and shrubs. Boca buffs are sure to want a copy of Boca Grande: The Early Days; Memoirs of an Island Son by the late Cary Johnson. 480 East Railroad, Boca Grande, 941/964-0777. -LG