K. G. Karunathilaka

It's worth noting that Captain Marryat wrote this book in response to Swiss Family Robinson. He was expected (by the children in his family) to read Swiss Family aloud to them, and what between the romanticized shipwreck and the bizarrely improbably assortment of animal and plant life all found on one island, he just couldn't get very far. So he wrote his own, informed by his naval experience and his travels. It seems odd that Swiss Family is still widely read today and the more plausible Masterman Ready is less known. I suppose we can blame Walt Disney! ( )

A hundred years ago, this was considered a children's classic. It tells the story of the Seagrave family who are ship wrecked on a south sea island along with a wizened old sailor, Masterman Ready. That sounds like it might be a gripping story, but it's not. It switches between didactic lessons regarding how the protagonists salvage their ship and set up housing for themselves and procure sources of food, along with pious discourses on how all is ordered by God's great, beneficial providence.

It wasn't truly horrible, and I thought for time I might get through it. But then, I decided that my age, my remaining time on earth was too short to waste on such dated dreck.

I made it 40% of the way through the book, so technically it belongs on the "gave up" bookshelf. But I invested enough time into it and another book on which I "gave up", that I decided one should be counted for my reading for the year and one in the discard pile, where it belongs.
( )

Oorspronkelijke titel: Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific
Ook verschenen als: Stuurman Flink

Didn't get very far with this. The novel is aimed at the child reader of 1841, which unfortunately makes it feel very flat and unrealistic to a(n adult) reader 175 years later. Gave up at 15%. No rating.