I’m reading Moby Dick and so many people have said this book is unreadable and when I bought it the bookseller said it was Impenetrable but so far I am enchanted by it. It just feels like some bloke sitting down beside me on a sunny afternoon on a bench by the port and telling me a story!
It's fine up until he gets going about the types of whales. Geez, what a long, boring, buzzkill. I think that book needed a better editor.
Agreed. There are large sections that feel like a textbook about whaling.
Those are the parts I found most fascinating. *loud whisper* Yes, I know I'm on the spectrum. I have been diagnosed.
ADHD does the opposite I think. Spectrum can equal focus on details and ADHD often gets bored with focus on details. But I'm no expert so YMMV right?
I have both autism and adhd so let’s see which one gets switched on when I hit the whales bit
Bless your heart, good luck. Also I recommend the Master and Commander series for rollicking tales of the age of sail. Another recommendation: Treasure Island is more fun than Moby Dick, IMO.
Treasure Island does have more knife fights than Moby Dick. I can't deny that. I mean, I *guess* technically the whale team loses a lot of knife fights. But they're spear fights, really.
I’ve read treasure island, often, and I’ve started the master and commander series. I do like the sea stories
Found out my first immigrant ancestor was a Dutch sailor who came to Virginia at age 18 and fought in the revolutionary war at age 50 a patriot! I love the age of sail stories. But I'm no sailor! youtu.be/SaEXyQg7pCc?...
Huge Melville fan as well as the Aubrey/Maturin books; I’m retired Navy so those books strike a chord with me for sure.
Well, when you get there just think of them as really comprehensive footnotes. The story comes back.
It feels like it’ll be like all the endless discussions of sewers in Les Miserables when I just wanted to know if Valjean and Marius survived
I found those bits interesting. But always wanted to get back to the story.
I never read the book until AFTER seeing John Huston’s footnote-free movie adaptation by Ray Bradbury. Reading about the world cultural significance of white animals is interesting, but the plot is better.
Yes. The chapter about the types of whales drone on a bit.
If people like Queequeg weren't real, Melville would never have written of them.
I love this book for exactly that reason and never understand the hate it gets.
Same! Classics are often much more funny than you think! Try don Quichote!
Bro loves spermaceti
Re-read that first sentece out loud. Then rewrite it so it’s an actual sentence or sentences, and repost.
🤣
I read Moby Dick as a pre-teen in the mid '70's, my father's copy from when he was a young boy along with others including The Time Machine, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island...
Many years later I came across this book while browsing the B&N. I recall I enjoyed it. www.goodreads.com/book/show/77...
Finnegan’s Wake is impenetrable. Moby Dick is just long.
It's rambly but a great novel.
People just are not literate. It may not be everyone's favorite (nothing is) but unreadable? Impenetrable? Do people even read books anymore?
Read this when I was 11. Really great book
Lo que pasa es que mucha gente arranca a leer Moby Dick desde la introducción y hay que leerla cuando comienza la historia de Ismael.
Forrest Gump, but with a lifelong vendetta against one giant sea monster in particular.
And teaching you more than you are ever going want to learn about whaling. (I did love the core story btw)
I read it among dozens of other books. It took me approximately two years to finish my 600+ page copy. The book was fine. Why did I bother? It's Moby Dick and I felt that I should try to get through the book.
Lot of flensing…
So many people I like have told me to read this! Perhaps this year is the year...
It's a great book, I loved it
I loved it. I also loved The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann.
I was very surprised by how contemporary it feels.
Great description. I would also add that most chapters are short, and are readable on their own.
And one of the best ways to read it is to listen to this….(first chapter read by Tilda Swinton) www.mobydickbigread.com
Also he quite clearly fell in love with Queequeg…
To be fair, Queequeg has MAD AURA, as the kids might say. I mean, he's ostensibly a gruff, poorly-socialized sailor, but he impresses literally everyone he meets, from other gruff sailors to officers to the Quaker investor guy.
And as we know from Robinson Crusoe, islanders of no specified ethnic location always develop lifelong loyalties on principle. (And I’ll repeat CS Lewis’ quote that those who can’t see close friendships without “subtexts” have clearly never had one… Unless they’re female, and wishful thinking. 😍)
You’ll love Madam Bovary, and the Master and Margarita, in that case. Very funny & engaging reads.
Oh, I know Madame Bovary! That has lingered in my head long after I read it. I haven’t read the other one yet
A conversation with Satan. A demonic cat raining down chaos by gunfire. A House on the Embankment. Read it and …
That works for me…
My Freshman English teacher LOVED Moby Dick, he passed that love along. The best way to read it imo is as an audiobook, because that's the way most books were consumed when Melville wrote it. One person reading as others sewed or did other chores. It started my love of audiobooks as well.
I bought Cloud Atlas from a charity shop having never heard of it. Took it home, enjoyed it and then read about how difficult a book it was to get through.
The bits about how to gut a whale are a little slow, but the book is a classic for a reason.
We had to read it in high school and I agree. I loved that and the old man and the sea. Great old school yarns. They don't write them like that anymore.
One of my favorites
I was hooked (sorry!) from "Call me Ishmael".