Here are the 21 Travis McGee novels in order:

The University Press of Florida is offering free “quarantine reads” in which 10 of their titles, in eBook format, are free for download through April 30! The books look solid and I’ve already downloaded all the FL related ones.

I was amazed when I first heard of Mickler’s Floridiana. It sounds like the coolest place on Planet Earth to hang out at. Unfortunately, like all good things…it came to an end, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be immortalized in a blog post.

Kevin McCarty is an English professor at the University of Florida and has written extensively about the history of Florida. The only book I have read of his is Hillsborough River Guidebook which I read years ago, at the time I didn’t realize the book was written by a prolific Florida author.

What does Earnest Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett have in common? Well, not only have they both lived in Key West, but they each have reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller fiction list and non-fiction list. Maybe there’s something in the water over there.

I first met Travis McGee while I was working on one of those big cruise ships. I just finished a 12 hour shift and was looking for something to take back to my cabin to wind down with. I went to the crew library, a small room with a couple of bookshelves that contained old, beat-up books and board games that were missing pieces.

If I had to pick only one book to hold up as The Great Floridian Novel I would pick Rawlings’ The Yearling, which, incidentally, also won a Pulitzer for fiction in 1939. She made a career writing about the Florida Crackers and also penned South Moon Under and the autobiographical Cross Creek, both very good.

Zora Neale Hurston wrote one of the all-time great Florida books with Their Eyes Were Watching God, not just a Florida classic, but an unsung American classic that should be taught in the schools. The hurricane scene alone is some of the best writing I have ever come across.

Michael Gannon will always have a special place in my heart. When I started this blog in 2013 it was his books that I first absorbed in my quest to learn everything I possibly could about Florida.

Ah yes, Dave Barry. He is a humorist that wrote columns for the Miami Harold for many years and is still pumping out hilarious books and articles into his 70s. His humor fits well in Florida, which is probably why he chose Florida as his home long ago.

Carl Hiaasen is the OG pioneering author of the genre I like to call “Florida Weird.” Because there is no other way to describe it. If you live in Florida and read his tales of off-the-wall, ridiculous, turd-fondling characters (fiction and non-fiction) doing insane things, you will find yourself nodding along because, well…yup, that sure sounds like Florida.

Stephen King’s Duma Key is full of the dark, psychologically creepy story line that we have come to expect from the horror master. It’s eerie, spooky, and takes place in Florida. In short, the novel is great fun.

I come across a real gem every once in a while. This time it was in the form of a book, Ghost Towns of Florida by James R. Warnke. But what makes this special isn’t necessarily the content of the book, but the spirit of the book.

Meet Travis McGee—beach bum, knight errant, philosopher, lady’s man. Living life aboard the Busted Flush in Bahia Mar in Ft. Lauderdale. Taking retirement in installments when he’s got the dough and going to work when he’s running low. He is without a doubt Florida’s greatest pulp hero.