Early in the spring, I decided I wanted to read Moby Dick. There was a fantastic piece on Defector, that helped pique my interest during the winter and I had it on my to-read list for 2024. I took the advice of the fantastic booktuber Benjamin McEvoy and committed myself to reading one chapter a day.
I bounce between being a voracious reader and barely getting through a sentence depending on the day, but my goal was to make it through this American classic. I started strong and quickly was hit over the head by life and before I knew it the very modest goal of one chapter a day became one chapter a week. I'm currently at chapter 83 and during this time the original plan was to be finishing up by now.
This book is fucking incredible and also an absolute bore. As I move through Moby Dick Im growing to appreciate both ends as a genius. The way this book transcended time, space, and culture is unreal.
To commit to finishing Moby Dick I've started supplementing with the audiobook, not before embarrassingly googling "do audiobooks count"….please don't judge me. I mean, after all, there's more than one way to skin a white whale…amirite…ok sorry I'm done.
I love this book and the way it stays in my headspace and man do I love Queequeg. Any other words or encouragement or how you kept the course with Moby Dick (or any difficult classic for that matter) please share!
by MachoMom