Rupert ClaytonJul 18, 2025
Kris Howard
Oh no. - I have a running joke that I don’t care for books that start out with maps. Maybe it’s because my sense of direction is terrible and I hate slogging through chapters of geographical descriptions? At any rate, I opened my latest library book today and had to laugh. This is a new one, for me. https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/80541
Jul 18, 2025 at 12:50amWeb
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
Me, just now: “Where the hell is Minorca??”
Rodd: “Right next to Mallorca.”
Me: “THAT IS NOT HELPING ME.”
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
Noting for posterity: first mention of buggery on page 21.
Show threadKris HowardJul 20, 2025
Me, before I started this book: “Master and Commander is serious historical fiction about boats and warfare.”
Captain Jack Aubrey, on page 29: “But I dare say it is much the same thing - a putain, as they say in France?”
Maturin: “btw the word is patois”
Me: *chokes*
Show threadAnna MiriamsdochterJul 20, 2025
@web_goddess the problem is he does stuff like this all the time and then kills off someone you love :(
Show threadKris HowardJul 20, 2025
@venite @web_goddess Oh no! I have watched the movie though, so I’m prepared for that sort of vibe. (I understand it doesn’t directly correspond to the books, but there were several lamentable deaths in there.)
Show threadAnna MiriamsdochterJul 20, 2025
@web_goddess oh I’m glad you’re prepared! I hadn’t seen it so I wasn’t 😂 bit naive maybe.
Show threadLeon BambrickJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess defacing a library book is a crime, but adding helpful annotations, well that is the lord’s work.
Show threadLyndalJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess but the spanker is right there in the intro
Show threadCycling StuJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess Near Ibiza
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
@stufromoz So far no mentions of Ibiza... in this book set in 1800. 😂
Show threadCycling StuJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess No hitting the dens of iniquity on Ibiza? Oh for shame!
Show threadLeon BambrickJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess Minorca is just Majorca with a flattened 3rd and 7th
Show threadDave FischerJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess Two Years Before The Mast?
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
@davefischer @web_goddess The first Aubrey/Maturin novel
Show threadD. G. MarshallJul 18, 2025

@web_goddess

It's all jib-berish to me.

Show threadLeon BambrickJul 18, 2025

@web_goddess @pjf — was it you Paul who was posting images of ships with preposterous (yet accurate) numbers of sails… maybe yesterday? Kris is now providing the diagrams.

Hashtag Mastodon is how I learned to be a ships captain me hearties.

Show threadPaul FenwickJul 18, 2025

@secretgeek @web_goddess : It was indeed me!

https://cloudisland.nz/@pjf/114866503264056804

Paul Fenwick (@[email protected])

Attached: 2 images People are posting pictures of their in-game ships with like a million sails. Every possible attachment point is just covered with them, you can hardly see the hull at all behind all the sails. I'm all "this isn't realistic, this is the game engine letting you take things too far". Then I look at historical sailing vessels.

Cloud Island
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
@pjf @secretgeek HA! I missed that 😂
Show threadChris Mackay 🇨🇦Jul 18, 2025
@web_goddess Ah, Patrick O’Brian. I’ve read 3 — 20-ish years ago. They’re wonderful. I really should dig back into them.
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
@tantramar I never had any desire to read historical naval fiction until this essay: https://lithub.com/actually-master-and-commander-is-a-domestic-fantasy-about-a-codependent-life-partnership . So far I'm enjoying it! There was a meet cute at a concert, and then Aubrey got promoted.
Actually, Master and Commander is a Domestic Fantasy About a Codependent Life Partnership!

Over the course of summer 2023—giving myself a hard deadline of Labor Day—I set out to read my way through Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series of nautical adventure novels, beginning with Maste…

Literary Hub
Show threadChris Mackay 🇨🇦Jul 18, 2025
@web_goddess The movie — which is a personal favourite — is cobbled together from scenes from the first 3 books, but it rings very true to those books. From what I’ve read, O’Brian was as good at historical fiction, nautical detail, and naval warfare, as he was at writing compelling characters.
Show threadKris HowardJul 18, 2025
@tantramar I re-watched the movie last week, thinking it would help me, before I found out on Wikipedia that it doesn't correspond exactly to any of the books in particular. *sigh*
Show threadWearyBonnieJul 18, 2025
@web_goddess
Oh, for me this is the sign of a book I'm very excited to read!! But then I am also a fan of book maps precisely because I am no good at geography - I like to be able to flip back constantly and reference the map 😁
Show threadTom HornJul 18, 2025

@web_goddess Those books never had maps. This directly resulted in some personal insanity for me

WARE SPOILERS (probably something to look at after you have finished the first one)

https://www.cannonade.net

Also. I envy you starting on that series. Obviously, I love them :P

Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project

To accurately map the progress of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in the novels by Patrick O'Brian.

www.cannonade.net