January 31st was the official end-date of the Seafaring Challenge, my first ever challenge. The challenge was to read nautical books and depending on how many you read, you could reach different ranks.

I planned to go for the rank of Admiral, by reading four books, but I only managed three, as I got a bit lazy towards the end and veered away from my Seafaring Challenge fourth choice in favour of other books. But no worries, I’m still a mighty fine Commodore (which I became because I “read three books, any genre or sub genre, but [took] things up a notch by adding a classic to the mix”. That’s provided you count Hornblower books as classics, which I do).

My books were:

• Kydd; Julian Stockwin
• Flying Colours; CS Forester
• His Majesty’s Dragon; Naomi Novik

I liked His Majesty’s Dragon and Flying Colours about equally, and Kydd not so much. I’ve read a lot of the Hornblower books before, but apparently not that particular one (even though I thought so before opening the book). I plan to keep reading the series by Novik, but I think the first Kydd book will also be the last I read.

Mr Midshipman Easy, the book that I planned to read, but didn’t, will still get read at some point this year, as I mean to use it for the Decades ‘08 challenge. It just won’t count towards my naval rank.

Many thanks to Christina for hosting this challenge!

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by Love
Filed under: Seafaring Challenge