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I really want to read this one. It looks like a regular tome, but I have no doubts that it will be a great read and a fulfilling experience. It is certainly on my To Read list. I know the basic storyline though, and it sounds awesome.

I didn't read the book since it isn't to my taste. There are many great books to chose from, so I read books I think I will enjoy.

I first read this one when I was around eight or nine years old. I just loved the story because, well, there was a monstrous and intelligent whale that liked to splinter ships and drive old sailors crazy... I also liked Queequeg's character, and felt very somber when I read the ending much to my amusement, as I always like the ones that make one feel dreary about the way things turn out. "There she blows!" I was so excited when the second villain was finally revealed I found myself reading a little faster so I could see what happened next sooner! I had waited so long to see the titan of Ahab's tales that I wondered, never before having been told any part of the plot, if it would actually appear at some point... Moby Dick then became my favorite book and stayed at the top of my "Top Ten" list for a few years. Now I'm on to other things, but I think I'll return to it one of these days. It's very sentimental to me now.

Leafmachine3 wrote:I really want to read this one. It looks like a regular tome, but I have no doubts that it will be a great read and a fulfilling experience. It is certainly on my To Read list. I know the basic storyline though, and it sounds awesome.

Hate to disappoint you but Moby Dick doesn't really have a story, only about 10% of the writing is about the whale hunt the rest is about the symbology of whales, whales in myths, numerous mind numbing chapters on whale anatomy. I mean there's literally an entire chapter about the colour White, seriously! and thats actually one of the better bits.

It starts off much better and funnier than i expected but overall you'll feel relief rather than a sense of joy at having got through it, assuming you do ever manage to finish it.

When I read Moby Dick as an adult, I was astounded at all the "tales of horror" I had heard about it over the years. I found it to be an enthralling and exciting read - I couldn't put it down.

"the rest is about the symbology of whales, whales in myths, numerous mind numbing chapters on whale anatomy"

This is not my recollection. granted the book includes much factual detail, but personally, I like reading information I didn't know.

I know it's not one of the MOST exciting classic reads out there, but I know I enjoyed it deeply. I did, however, prefer Herman Melville's shorts. His Bartleby is a particularly engrossing little story.

-- 07 Jan 2014, 14:00 --

I know it's not one of the MOST exciting classic reads out there, but I know I enjoyed it deeply. I did, however, prefer Herman Melville's shorts. His Bartleby is a particularly engrossing little story.

I must have started and stopped reading this book at least few hundred times since my childhood! I gave it a try last year again, and gave up again

I read this for the first time at a very young age, and then again in college. There are a lot of sexual and religious undertones that I obviously didn't get the first time, but it was a good read. It can be a bit dry in parts, but I highly recommend it, especially if it's your first Melville.

I recently listened to the audiobook version of Moby Dick. As others have mentioned there are some parts of this book that are pretty horrible. Overall its a very great story, but I wouldn't go for the reread.

Moby Dick is a MUST READ whether you like it or not! I enjoyed doing a book report on it in school and also enjoyed the movie with Patrick Stewart. It's a classic book and anyone that hasn't read it really should it. I found it exciting and thrilling and i just love his passion to kill the whale at any cost!! I encourage you to read it. You'll love it

I read Moby Dick as a teenager. By the time I finished, I felt I would have been quite at home on a whaling vessel of the period. It's a very good book, with lots of imagery still referred to today, but be aware most of it describes whaling practices when it was written.

I have read this a few times, twice to my own kids over the years. I liken it to great adventure stories, with villains and malcontents, monsters and simple, greedy folk. It is, at least to my ideology, a similar yarn to Robinson Crusoe or Treasure Island. Boys own stuff of the first water. Each has it's own iconic characters that drives the thing along and, teaches us the strangeness of folk. Taken from a life of long ago, a land of long ago and peopled with tough hardy folk from a long time ago. Read and begin to understand history, psychology, geography and science, yes and survival..... I effectively got thrown out of school over this book and, simply put, it was worth it all them years ago... !!

You know, I have never read Moby Dick. Not sure why not. The detail,about whale that you say is in it sounds a lot like Mysterious Island and all the detail about how the group made iron, gunpowder, etc and managed to make everything they needed. I loved that, so I think I'll enjoy Moby Dick.

You've talked me into reading it! There should be a free version for my Kindle.

Do it, stick with it, it isn't 21st century writing, but a much more pleasurable pace from a long while ago as I said. Everything today is the rapid, must have it yesterday mentality, slow down and relax instead of the frenetic swimming against the tide. These guys wrote with hand held pens/quills, imagine how long it took to write... the imagination was more refined and attuned to their surroundings than today, and that is a shame... !!! I love the name of the whaler 'Pequod', splendid..!!!!

I like these kinds of adventure books. I think my favorite author of adventure novels is Robert Louis Stevenson... He makes the sea, same as Melville, more interesting than most do. As I wrote before, I really liked Melville's short story, Bartleby, too. Try it out!