2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This month we will be reading Moby-Dick or, the Whale by Herman Melville

This book was nominated by Jordan for our monthly theme Emoji

"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

I won't be taking part in this month's group read but it was an interesting experience when I picked up this book

I have the book ready to dive into, but I admit that this is a book that I’ve always been nervous to read. Fingers crossed that I love it, or at least, appreciate it as I read it.

Rebecca wrote: "I have the book ready to dive into, but I admit that this is a book that I’ve always been nervous to read. Fingers crossed that I love it, or at least, appreciate it as I read it."

Same! I have owned a copy for years, but never read it.

Same for me. Hoping I will like it...... But, if not, I won't read on.

So I brought a cheap copy of Moby Dick. Never read it before. Might give it a try. It is a classic and I really need to read more classics!! LOL

I didn't understand the need for the 2 pre-chapters until I read these comments from a summary book on Moby Dick. [paraphrasing] "Mixed throughout the novel of Ahab's obsessive chase for the whale is Melville's non-narrative matter-of-fact chapters about a particular theme or image, often mixed with humor, about life, nature, the sea, whales, the whaling industry, etc. The pre-chapters, Etymology, and Extracts, before Ch 1 are an example & introduce the unknowable whale first through a limited dictionary view by Usher, an assistant schoolmaster, 'threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain', contrasted by Melville's Sub-Sub librarian, who is not valued by the world but provides a non-veritable gospel cetology of the many fanciful thoughts, songs, & views described by many nations and generations and put into a collection of random whale allusions he found in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane about the paradoxical, unknowable, King of the boundless sea. The sub-sub librarian's method is in a way how Melville writes his novel of a doomed whale chase, interspersed with every conceivable practical, mythical, religious, or literary thought he has about the rank and file of different sailors, the sea, the whaling industry, and the whale."

This is my 2nd time reading Moby Dick, so here's a helpful hint if you are like me and sometimes run short of time when reading a long book in just a month; of the 135 chapters, 45 are non-narrative rather than about the main story plot, but they add a great deal of knowledge about whaling, life, & other connected themes as well as Melville's beautiful, descriptive language if you do find the time to read and enjoy his work. These are the 45 chapters grouped by theme or a specific topic: 32, 35, 41, 42, 47, 55-57, 58-60, 62-63, 66, 67-70, 72, 74-77, 79-80, 82-84, 85-90, 92, 94-98, & 101-105.

I planned to read Moby Dick at the beginning of the year so I was happy to see this was going to be a group read for the month of June. I just finished reading War and Peace so I suspect I'll need longer than the month of June to finish this (W&P took 5 months).

Martha wrote: "I planned to read Moby Dick at the beginning of the year so I was happy to see this was going to be a group read for the month of June. I just finished reading War and Peace so I suspect I'll need ..."

War and Peace is on my to-read list as well.

Sheila from NC just now seeing that Moby Dick is the group read choice. I have read it before and found it very good. I will put it on June tbr.