Moby Dick; Herman Melville

"I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise."

I will lie neither to myself nor you. This book is painful to read. Moby Dick. It is almost set up on a pedestal, like some sort of king of American literature, unconquerable, proud, and menacing. It is a classic of epic and intimidating proportions. A monolith as big as its title character.

It is an amazing book. It is filled with unlooked-for beauty in its prose. At one moment struggling though a less than captivating description of the finer points of cetology, in the next being struck in the face by the masterful way in which your narrator, Ishmael, describes some aspect of life, or human nature or the sea.

This book is worthy of the label "classic". It should be read. My only advice is to go into the reading of it with an open mind and dedication. It was not easy for me to read. I'm pretty sure I've never taken this long to read a book in my entire life; and I have definitely read longer ones. But it is challenging and beautiful and worth while. I'm really glad to have finally read it and I think that I will again in the future.