A friend recently mentioned that he had read a book “about sailing” by a local author in Fallbrook, California, where he lived. Reading the work of local authors, someone you might run into at a gathering, is something I will definitely do. I picked up Book 1 of Calder Chronicles. It is a series of four books.
The story starts in 1680 in Guildford, England. Delmar Calder is a 12-year-old boy, the second son of a landowner. In those days, the first son inherited the estate, daughters were married off to hopefully rich men of equal or higher station, but the other sons had to fend for themselves. Delmar was dyslexic and therefore didn’t excel academically. Without his father’s permission and blessing, he got himself a post as a midshipman on board of a royal warship and sailed away. It’s a coming of age story.
It is well-written and entertaining. When I got to about 30 percent I realized that while it was a fairly good book, and while I learned about history in the 1600s, I still was somewhat uninterested. The book was just – entertaining. Nothing more. So I put it aside and left it as a “book not finished reading.”
If you really want to read a superb book on sailing and some history of California, I highly recommend Richard Henry Dana’s book Two Years Before the Mast.
There is nothing wrong with the Calder Chronicles. But there are too many books to read and not enough time, so I have to choose. And I chose to move on.
As always with books not finished reading, I don’t rate them.