A wonderful little book.

Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook edition first, nicely read by author Philbrick. Then I checked out the print version to read the following quote from page 111 at the Library's "Booked For Lunch" program.
"As Melville has already shown in chapter 99, 'The Doubloon,' in which just about every member of the Pequod's crew provides his own interpretation of what is stamped on the gold coin nailed to the mast, in the end a doubloon is just a doubloon. So don't fall into the Ahab trap of seeing Moby Dick as a stand-in for some paltry human complaint. In the end he is just a huge, battle-scarred albino sperm whale, and that is more than enough."
If you find that sentiment, and the kind of language and thinking to fashion and share it, to be attractive, you will love this book. It is not just about a literary masterpiece, it is about loving literature as a life stance, or perhaps I should say an aesthetic.


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