For those of you who still have the attention span for books, I recommend The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard. It's a historical look at the realities of piracy on the high seas during the golden age of piracy as well as tracking its eventual and inevitable decline. The thing that stuck with me was how there was an actual ethical code to how things were conducted and just how goddamn appealing piracy was when compared to the standard thing of getting press ganged into the royal navy. It's a good read and worth picking up.

My coworker got me the book and it sat on my shelf for a couple years before I finally got around to reading it but I enjoyed it so much that I had to hunt him down all those years later to thank him for the gift. Good stuff.