Originally Posted by 1968RR
Originally Posted by RoadRunnerLuva
I recently read Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. I never read it before until now...great story!

I probably started Moby Dick a half-dozen times before I got past the 30th page. When I finally did read it, I was glad that I did. It's easily one of the best American novels ever written. Like a lot of readers, I struggled reading the long and descriptive passages related to the anatomy of whales, etc., but Melville's knowledge of whales and the whaling industry is impressive. It's probably not true, but I read somewhere that Melville purposefully made those passages tedious and boring to give the reader an idea of what it was like to be stuck at sea for months on end. laugh2


I believe it was all quite accurate. He DID serve on a whaling ship & was a real sailor back then. The story itself of the "great white whale" was fiction though I'm quite sure. His detailed writing of life aboard a sailing ship back then & the anatomy of whales I would think was spot-on. The book & his style of writing (old English) was tedious, & very complex. After chipping away at that book for a few months (I'd normally read 4 pages an evening), I finally finished it. I started it in November while my dad was doing poorly & told him I was reading it. My dad passed away on 12/4 & I finished it after - in his memory. The book was a difficult read but worth it. After spending all that time reading it, I could not write ONE sentence in Melville's style or structure as he did. It was that complex.

No Man With A Good Car Needs To Be Justified