FMK #10: Age of Sail

[melannen]

Last week's winner was Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones which I really hope is good. K winner was Tales from Watership Down, which I may actually accidentally have two copies of, so that will help.

This is FMK #10! I kept it up for almost ten weeks! 115 out of 860 unread have already been FMK'd, whoo. In celebration, today we have a non-SF poll theme: Age of Sail.

How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.

I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.

Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)

Poll #18311 FMK #10: Age of Sail

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

Modern Chivalry by Hugh Henry Breckenridge (1792)

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F
5 (45.5%)

M
2 (18.2%)

K
4 (36.4%)

Voyage to the First of December by Henry Carlisle (1972)

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F
4 (40.0%)

M
2 (20.0%)

K
4 (40.0%)

The Pirates Own Book by Charles Elmms (1837)

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F
4 (36.4%)

M
2 (18.2%)

K
5 (45.5%)

The Captain from Connecticut by C. S. Forester (1941)

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F
8 (66.7%)

M
3 (25.0%)

K
1 (8.3%)

The Sweet Trade by Elizabeth Garrett (2001)

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F
10 (83.3%)

M
1 (8.3%)

K
1 (8.3%)

Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo (1866)

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F
7 (46.7%)

M
3 (20.0%)

K
5 (33.3%)

The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys (2004)

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F
4 (36.4%)

M
1 (9.1%)

K
6 (54.5%)

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (1955)

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F
4 (33.3%)

M
2 (16.7%)

K
6 (50.0%)

Mr. Midshipman Easy by Capt. Frederick Marryat (1836)

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F
9 (75.0%)

M
3 (25.0%)

K
0 (0.0%)

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (1912)

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F
11 (68.8%)

M
5 (31.2%)

K
0 (0.0%)

Deep Water Days by Oliver G. Swan (1929)

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F
3 (30.0%)

M
4 (40.0%)

K
3 (30.0%)

Comments

[isis]

I didn't like Jack Absolute but maybe you will.

[melannen]

I figured that would be one nobody here had heard of. I like the cover?

[isis]

I only read the first one, not this one (this is #2 in the series) and I had thought it was before I got on Goodreads but apparently not!

I've also read Mr. Midshipman Easy and Captain Blood, and liked them both. And oops, I kind of mis-fired my vote on the second, oh well.

[melannen]

Captain Blood is doing fine without you but I'll count you if I need a tiebreaker. :P

[rachelmanija]

This was difficult as I have only even heard of Captain Blood and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, and the latter only because it was a Newbery Honor book. Hence nearly everything got a fuck vote.

[melannen]

I did not even know Carry On, Mr. Bowditch was a Newbery Honor book! They are all either about sailboats or set during the Napoleonic Wars or just around then, that's most of what I know.

[cahn]

I loved Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (nerd sailor figuring out navigation math problems!), but I see I'm the only person who did, so maybe it has been visited by the suck fairy since I read it as a kid.

[melannen]

Maybe you and I are the only ones here who really like books about people doing math problems?

There is also a contingent of people who appear to be voting K for everyone they have not heard of who has a name that sounds like it's a white dude, maybe they think Jean is a dude's name? IDK! Unless people were forced to read it in school? I had no idea it was a book anyone had heard of.

[rachelmanija]

I voted kill on it on the basis that most Newbery Honor books of that era have not aged well.

[melannen]

Yeah, I remember when justice_turtle was trying to read all the Newberys in order, it didn't go well.

[cahn]

Huhhh. This led me down a rabbit hole where I discovered that there are a large number of Newbery Honor books I haven't read, and that many of them from the title alone sound awful. Also that Bowditch actually won the Newbery :) (which is probably why I've read it at all; my library growing up had a special shelf for Newbery winners)

And, I mean, my dim memories of Bowditch indicate that he was very much the absent-minded professor type, which these days isn't that interesting for me to read about, and I totally would buy that the book hasn't aged well. But still! math problems! :)

[the_rck]

I think I'm going to abstain. My phobia of deep water means that I want to vote kill on all of these while setting them on fire (and possibly while screaming). I think this is worse grounds for choosing how to vote than rolling a die would be.

[melannen]

Eep! Sorry. Well, I guess the post title served as a warning!

Jack Absolute is actually set on land during one of the wars of the period, iirc, so I guess that would be a vote against the ocean.

[mecurtin]

I voted "fuck" for almost all, because I know nothing and Mr Dr Science has only read "Captain from Connecticut" (unlikely to be bad, but he doesn't remember it) and "Captain Blood" ("the movie is better"). But I plan to use this list as a guide for getting him stuff from the library or Gutenberg!

[melannen]

Oh no don't use this as a recs list! These are ones I haven't read and picked up at random at book sales because they were very cheap and had ships and/or 18th century dudes in uniforms on the cover. It is neither a comprehensive survey nor a well-curated one.

[brownbetty]

Man, I am alarmingly uninformed in this genre. I voted for the only book that looked like it was written by a woman, on that basis.

[melannen]

I mean, my knowledge is basically Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin, Temeraire, a few classic kids' novels and a lot of nonfiction about pirates. (I did look at the "Age of Sail" tag on LT; ordered by popularity, there's those three, then two series I've never heard of, and then we get right into the M/M erotica.)

[snickfic]

I voted F for the Forester, because I've had good experience with Forester in the past. Also F for Carry On, Mr Bowditch because a mathy colleague of mine recommended it.

[melannen]

I approve of mathy stories.