The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

It's winter, we're in Colorado, and I'm trying to find a buyers agent (thank you to those who suggested it) so we can purchase our first sailboat.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case this time of year, it's been cold and snowing and just not conducive to anything sailing.  Trying to keep something sailing going on in my life while we try to locate a good agent, I stopped by the local library to see if I could at least find a little light reading.  As you might imagine, libraries in a land-locked and rather arid state don't have a lot of titles on sailing, but I did manage to find The Annapolis Book of Seamanship.

I would not consider this book to be "a little light reading" (although the hardcover version might be useful as a self-defense weapon).  It seems to be more of a reference for everything you need to know as a sailor. While I haven't read through it all yet, what I've read thus far seems to provide more detail and theory than the textbooks we used during our sailing classes (so it appeals to my engineering side that loves to know how things work).  I now better understand the sail plan/rig options and the concept of hull speed and am getting a jump on understanding the use of a spinnaker (one sail not covered in any of our classes yet).

While I would prefer to have electronic copies of most books that will be going on the boat (they can be heavy you know), there are some that I think we want in print so we can access them even if we have no power or charged batteries.  I was thinking our class texts would be good candidates for print copies, but maybe this one will take the place of a couple of the other books...if I can find a paperback version.