Bookshelf Essentials: Moby-Dick! 

The whaling chapters can drag but they are metaphorical and are filled with jokes.

One of the greatest books I've ever read -- maybe takes the number one spot. Encyclopaedic, strange, stylistically a joy to read.

Great timing! I'm doing a reread of Moby Dick with some booktube friends in February and I didn't know there was already an event going on with it. I do think that Moby Dick has a few difficult chapters to get through, mainly Cetology; however, the general flow is so inviting and the writing is so beautiful that usually I found myself only having to wait a chapter till I was back to something I loved. It helps that most of the chapters are very short, which I think gives this book an ease at being slowly picked at.

I read MD last year with The Classics Reading Lounge (Discord group). It is my favorite book. I am in awe of Melville. I read and re-read and re-read The Town-Ho chapter. This book deserves the praise that it has received. MD is a masterpiece.

Moby Dick is one of those books I didn’t really “enjoy” reading while I was reading it. But shortly after finishing it I fell completely in love with it. The more I thought about the more I wanted to reread it soon.

This is a definite bookshelf essential for me too. I very much love it. Chapter 36 on the quarterdeck is worthy of memorising isn’t it. It is like poetry. At different stages in my life this book has meant different things and I love that about it.

Will try to get around to it this year. Best wishes.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. The very idea of trying to find one specific creature in the vast ocean, is a crazy idea by itself.

Nice video, Steve. I read it all (even the “skippable” chapters) I was so glad I did. I understand your point.

I'm a Cetology lover!

Thanks Steve. I read it for the first time last year and it was one of the most special experiences I've ever had a book.

I understand skipping chapters to encourage people to read the book, but I would be sorry if hadn't read them. What an education and wealth of information those chapters provide. I might skip them in a reread though.

I remember when I read this I was amazed that someone could write a whole chapter about the crow's nest on a ship! Great book though I read the whole thing and I enjoyed it very much!

This is the great American novel of 19th cent. Middlemarch is the great novel of the British Isles of same period. Mme. Bovary or maybe Le Rouge et le Noir, of France. Dom Casmurro of the Portuguese speaking world. I Promessi Sposi of Italy. War and Peace of Russia. And there are many videos discussing each of these on RU-vid. But nothing, nada, is ever said about one of the great world novels, written in one of the great world languages, right up there with Middlemarch and War and Peace, that came out of Spain in this period, namely Fortunata y Jacinta by Galdos. Please devote something to this great work sometime.

I first read this last year with a podcast - Critical Readings. Having that gentle guiding helped tons and opened it for me to the degree that the book I dreaded and would have put off for 20 years became a general favorite that probably will grow every re-read. I’m re-reading it this yesr, but unfortunately I discovered too late it was a CC read and had too many plans. Canon plans to be exact. Reminds me this is a good time for the regular reminder we all yearn for the expanded canon starter kit 😉 I would personally love a expanding of it particularly on the greeks and the romans. If that isn’t bait I don’t know what is 😂

I’m just about to read this for the first time, thank you for sharing your thoughts!

While I would say that it could use a bit more plot to break up some of the encyclopedic chapters, those chapters are never entirely informational. They are prose poems and digressions on a theme. I don't see the point of skipping. That is 90% of the book.

How about listing the chapters of Moby Dick a reader can skip to avoid Melville’s offputting technical details about whaling.

I've always thought the tedious parts of Moby Dick were intentional on Melville's part as a way of replicating for the reader what it must have been like for the crew to go on a years-long cruise waiting for something to happen, but more often hanging around and feeling bored. If you don't commit to the duller passages then I think you only get part of the total effect. I can understand why people might be attracted to a version of edited highlights but I think it's a mistake.

Here, here. One of the very few books I've re-read.

I’ve had a copy for more than a decade and haven’t read it… I did begin and it kinda reminded me of Gene Wolfe, not sure why I stopped! It does sound good…

Surely I'm not the only one to see the similarities between Ahab and the fellow who so desperately wants to reoccupy our Capital in order to get his revenge🤔

The plot was thickened from the start.

This was such a strange reading experience when I first read it.

The Great American Novel?

Hi Steve can you recommend a good Biography of Melville? I read Moby Dick years ago and struggled through it ( perfectly happy to put this down to ignorance of youth). I will be rereading Moby Dick this year and am very much looking forward to it

I enjoyed what you had to say about Moby Dick.

Moby Dick is a masterpiece and obviously a bookshelf essential that I love but I personally like Billy Budd better. And as an aside what do you think about the other two great crazy captains Wolf Larsen and Capt. Nemo?