I like pirates. What's a good book to read?

Amazon has a list here

Knock yourself out and remember; to err is human, to arrr is pirate.

Try to use http://www.goodreads.com for your demand. This site is very helpful for looking good literature.

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman.
I loved it as a kid.

Treasure island by Robert Louis Stevenson is the quintessential pirate novel.

The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Jules Verne.
The movie based on it is a mini masterpiece, one of my fave films.

Not quite piratical, but if you are interested in tales of fighting sailing ships of the line and frigates, consider the Aubrey/Maturin series from Patrick O’Brian. The first one is called Master and Commander. Wonderfully written with a true sense of being on board.

The Pirates! series by Gideon Defoe. Absolutely hysterical. Here’s an Amazon link to the first one.

I prefer historical narratives as well. I highly recommend the works of Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin (c. 1645–1707). He was sold for debt in bond by his father onto a ship out of France around 1657, but was resold to a degenerate planter in the West Indies who nearly starved and worked him to death, who then, at the end of the term of bond, illegally sold him off cheap to a surgeon on another plantation under a new bond when he should have been set free.. He picked up the art of surgery well enough to buy his own freedom and then joined a group of pirates as ship’s doctor and years later wrote about his experiences. His books were very popular in the 1700s and you will recognize many of the stories in later popular pirate fiction. He wrote about some of the nastiest bastards on earth and it’s all for free on the Internet Archive through the link above. This is excellent source documentation. Enjoy.

Nonfiction: A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, by Capt. Charles Johnson (first published in 1724).

Fiction: a young woman of my acquaintance highly recommends the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer. These are young adult novels with a female protagonist who disguises herself as a boy and goes to sea. My friend read these when she was around 12 and fell so thoroughly under the spell of these novels that she went on to become a tall ship sailor herself in real life.

THE LIVES AND ADVENTURES OF SUNDRY NOTORIOUS PIRATES, by Anonymous, 1922. It’s a good overview of the more notorious pirates. It’s here free online at Project Gutenburg.

My favorite source material is a 1678 autobiography by a guy named Exquemelin, an indentured servant who excaped his cruel masters and signed on as a ship’s surgeon for a notorios pirate gang in the Caribean, then lived to write about it and live out his life back in Europe. He rubbed shoulders with some of the most blood thirsty men of his time. It’s on Gutenburg as well.

Don’t forget Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.