This book is filled with good reasons to get a boat that is as small as you can comfortably sail in with expected people (i.e. immediate family) on board. The shallower your draft, the more secluded your anchorages can be; I personally value seclusion. Entertaining and useful.
If you own a small boat, here is a practical, philosophical approach to your hobby! Aligning the various joys (and, yes, frustrations!) and processes of acquiring, rebuilding, handling these vessels with Thoreau's quotation is like a little lesson in life. Less a cover to cover read, more a pickup for advice when particular needs arise, it is a manual that should be in your shipboard library.
Sensible Crusing is a goldmine of Thoreau quotes about good simple living. Each chapter is full of so much practical advice for simple sailors on a budget, it will have a permanent place on my library aboard.
Practical, sensible and transcendental. All Casey's books hit the mark if you are a plastic sailboat owner, wanna be cruiser. This one is the flagship and the others more or less selectively and thoreau-ly support this overview. His are the practical "on the water" guides.