Long before Jimmy Buffett ever became a writer, or a performer, or even a strummer of three basic chords, the young Jimmy Buffett was raised as a reader. Buoyed by his mother's own passion for that pastime, as well as his grandfather's seafaring tales, the south coastal youngster quickly discovered that reading could take him to faraway places -- both real and imagined -- without his leaving the shade of a tree, the sway of a hammock, or even the shelter of his room. And these were the sort of adventures that any boy could take on his own, pretty much whenever he wanted. Sometimes a chapter,...