Moby-Dick

Huge themes and subjects tackled by a book that seems to be only about one man's obsession with a whale. Melville couches moral judgments in how his characters each see the world and the task before them. And there is some laugh out loud humor too.

I've read Moby Dick once or twice before some years ago, but had never heard it read out loud. Listening to it on Audio book read by a brilliant actor, the late William Hootkins, the world of 19th century whaling came alive in all it's gruesome glory. An unforgettable experience.

Moby Dick is probably on everyone's list of "books I should read". I don't know about you, but newly-released books often get ahead of the classics in my reading list, so I'd put off reading it until a good friend of mine - fellow author and recent co-author Eric Wilson - told me that he was blown away by the book. Really? Moby Dick? That old, musty tome that's been both lampooned and celebrated for eons? I decided to give it a whirl, and boy and I glad I did. The opening chapters are some of the best, and I… show more.

2024 was the year that, well into middle age, I finally read "Moby Dick." It had been sold to me as a boring slog that American ninth graders were forced to endure. How was I to know that it is a stunning innovative, almost post-modern novel, that it is brilliantly written, that it verges on cosmic horror, or that it is gay as hell. I read it through Whale Weekly, so I was getting chapters emailed to me as the events occurred in the book, with plenty of time to analyze and deconstruct each episode with other readers.

This is my candidate for the Great American Novel. Read it for its storyline and its fascinating chapters on whales. Along the way, you’ll encounter discussions about race, religion, friendship, and the virtuous life.

Some of my students ask, “Why does Melville digress so much?” My response: persist in reading this work. What at first seems extraneous becomes vital. You’ll discover a masterpiece.

I could almost smell the sea and feel the spray on my face when I read this great American classic from 1851. I only discovered it recently when it was our book club choice and I’m wondering now why it took me so long!

Melville draws on his experience working on a whaling ship and his writing is about the oceans is so descriptive. D. H. Lawrence called it ""the greatest book of the sea ever written" and I’d agree. I loved the detailed and realistic accounts of whaling and life aboard ship.

I also learned a lot from the… show more.

It centers on and celebrates becoming—molting from one skin to another. For Ishmael this is a transition from a tired and limiting worldview to something fresh and alive.

The “bosom buddies” at the heart of the novel, Ishmael and Queequeg, seem comprised of opposites, but Ishmael’s etherealizing is grounded by Queequeg’s pragmatic ingenuity in ways that quiet and expand the young pagan-Presbyterian’s buzzing, anxious mind. Theirs is a friendship of succor, probably sex, and survival—all of it shadowed by the delusional obsessions of their mad captain.

We always look at the positive aspect of leadership—the ability to motivate, enhance commitment, and focus others on a core dream or mission. We aspire to the charismatic aspect of leadership.

But, all too often, leadership can also lead to the abyss, to an obsession. It can take your organization or your world in a singular direction—undaunted by reality, dominated by obsession. These are the leaders who aspire but never adjust. These are the leaders who may motivate but, in their commitment and obsession, destroy everything around them.

Ahab is such a leader, and Moby Dick is the greatest book… show more.

Moby-Dick is a true classic and an extraordinary book. I own a beautiful, old copy of it and I read this literary masterpiece more than once in my life, including last month. And not just because it’s one of the greatest books of all time, but also because I am a marine biologist who has studied whales and dolphins for many years!

The narration of this epic (and a bit intimidating) piece of literature - dated back to 1851, is poetic. I read mostly nonfiction books but, at times, I discover a fiction book that truly engages me. Moby dick… show more.

Incredibly, I had never read Moby-Dick until spending weeks at sea every summer, so Melville’s Great American Novel, which D.H. Lawrence called “one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world” found me on the boat. 

My book has been dubbed “the Moby-Dick of empty-nest tales” since my husband and I sail off in search of a rare white bear, inspired by Melville’s great white whale. I had no idea how funny and captivating Moby-Dick was – not to mention inspiring for armchair seafarers – until I settled in with its pages that first summer. It’s a brilliant… show more.