I decided that my 500th book must be one of my all time favorites:

This is the first adventure of Jack Aubrey & Steven Maturin, the captain and the surgeon/spy.

In the first decade of the nineteenth century, Leutenant Jack Aubrey is promoted to his first command of a warship, the sloop "Sophie". He befriends an eccentric physician, Stephen Maturin, and convinces him to sail as ship's surgeon. What follows is a sort of odyssey, a linear narrative as the Sophie cruises the Mediterranean, capturing cargo ships and fighting French and Spanish warships.
O'Brian has a wonderful, mature prose, a spare style that omits repetitious detail while allowing characters and events to describe themselves and leaving the minutiae to the reader's imagination. His complete ease with nineteenth century maritime affairs, from the idiom to the equipment is wholly convincing, yet never patronizing. Readers familiar with neither the sea nor the era will be swept along for the ride. Aubrey is heroic, but three-dimensional. He is flawed and sometimes unlikable, courageous yet occasionally frustratingly inept. Other characters are drawn with equal attention to detail and humanity.

Traveling as book ring to
1. Trinibell (GER)
2. Suzanne4Books (GER)
3. penelopewanders(CH)
4. Rrrcaron (USA)
5. chesswally (GER)
6. lavandia (GER)

And the best: There are 19 more volumes to read...

1 Master & Commander
2 Post Captain
3 H.M.S. Surprise
4 The Mauritius Command
5 Desolation Island
6 The Fortune of War
7 The Surgeon's Mate
8 The Ionian Mission
9 Treason's Harbour
10 The Far Side of the World
11 The reverse of the Medal

Crossed the equator during Bookcrossing Meetup Heidelberg

The Master travelled along with me to the black forest...

Weiter geht die Reise zu suzanne4books.

Arrived safe & sound today – will be next in line! Thanks!

Update, March 4th 2013: Patrick O'Brian, the Aubrey/Maturin series and me: This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship! It's narration, atmosphere, details of seemanship and sailing – I simply love it. Together with Stephen Maturin, who is new to naval life, the reader boards the sloop "Sophie" and thus learns about both Jack Aubrey's and the British Royal Navy's world. Because I liked the movie "Master and Commander" so much I bought a coffee-table book named "Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World" some time ago. This helped a lot, as well as my own experiences on board a square-rigged tallship. Otherwise most of the sailing part would have been totally lost to me...

I am very much looking forward to reading all the other parts of the series!

Heute gut angekommen – wird alsbald gelesen werden! Dank dafür!

Nachtrag, 4. 3. 2013: Patrick O'Brian, die Aubrey/Maturin-Reihe und ich: der Beginn einer wundervollen Freundschaft! Der Stil, die Atmosphäre, die Details über Seemanöver und Seemanschaft – ich liebe es. Zusammen mit Stephen Maturin, für den das Leben auf See komplettes Neuland ist, betritt der Leser die "Sophie" und lernt so Jack Aubreys Welt und die der British Royal Navy kennen. Weil mir schon der Film "Master und Commander" so gut gefallen hatte, hatte ich mir seinerzeit den Bildband "Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World" angeschafft. Das Buch war sehr hilfreich, ebenso wie meine eigene Erfahrung an Bord eines Rahseglers. Ansonsten wäre der seglerische Part wohl komplett an mir vorbeigegangen...

Ich freue mich sehr auf alle weiteren Teile der Serie!

Captain Jack Aubrey sticht heute wieder in See! Mast- & Schotbruch!

Captain Jack Aubrey is setting sails again today! Fair winds!

Received this book in the mail today. Have 1 to finish and 1 to read, then this will be next....
Ruth

After a safe return home the Commander will now start a second journey to
5. chesswally (GER)
6. lavandia (GER)

Arrived safely today...I'm looking forward to reading it.

When the book was offered here in the German Forum I immediately remembered a TV series in the 70ies called "Die Onedin-Linie". The main topic were sailing ships, too, but commercial ones. They had nothing to do with the Royal Navy, but nevertheless I was fascinated and now it is the same: Long ago...the life on a ship....dangerous fighting ... having adventures .... but never never I would have wished to be part of it ;-). I enjoyed reading the book and I'm looking forward to the next part. But to be honest, I think I'm going to do some research in order to understand some special naval things better.

Travelling to the next reader.

This book from Master and Commander is safely invested in my shelf harbour ^^

Will read it next.

Nice book^^

Thank you for sharing ;)

I´ll send it back to the owner ^^

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