Moby Dick T-Shirt

I have finished Moby Dick and have just purchased my reward, a T-shirt from Out of Print Clothing.  Yes, I am so excited to wear this shirt and I hope everyone asks me if I have read the book and I can proudly say:  Yes, I have.

Here is what I love about this company.  They sell book T-shirts of classic book covers.  For every shirt purchased they donate one book to a child in Africa.  I also really like that they have women's t-shirts and not just mens.

I am gonna look good in this shirt!

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #6

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #6

Pages read 500-625
Chapters read 105-135

I have finished reading Moby Dick! Yahoooooo! I have conquered Moby Dick and have survived the ordeal and I am so happy. I consider this a great accomplishment and my copy of Moby Dick will reside on my bookshelf as a trophy of achievement.

Melville is an absolute genius! I learned so much from this book and am so glad I undertook the difficult talk of reading it. It was worth it. The ending of Moby Dick was so good, so philosophical, so entertaining that I will definitely have to reread it. The last four chapters that is.

The book culminates in the last three chapters with the sighting of Moby Dick and the Pequod's subsequent demise. Starbuck's character made me cry with hope and denial as I so wanted him to see his wife and child and for the boat to give up the perilous fight. I loved the section about Queegueg's coffin and was overjoyed that he didn't need to use it and then the hilarious transition of the coffin being used as the ships life buoy. Genius, I say!

I bookmarked 6 quotes in the last 125 pages, more than any other section in the book.
I feel I must share them as they provoked much thought while I was reading. The last three quotes all come from The Symphony chapter.

"Well, well; I heard Ahab mutter, 'Here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine; swears that I must play them, and no other.' And damn me, Ahab, but thou actest right; live in the game, and die in it!" The last sentence on page 545.

"Though but a point at best; whencesoe'er I came; whencesoe'er I go; yet while I earthly live, the queenly personality lives in me, and feels her royal rights. But war is pain, and hate is woe. Come in thy lowest form of love, and I will kneel and kiss thee; but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there's that in here that still remains indifferent, Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee." Page 551

"Alike, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, seemed ground to finest dust, and powdered, for the time, in the clamped mortar of Ahab's iron soul." Page 582

"Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl's forehead of heaven." Page 589

""From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop." Page 590

"But if the great sun move not of himself; but as an errand boy of heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power, how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I." Page 592

Moby Dick is a religious book, a time travel book though history, a tribute to whalers and the whaling life, a memoir of a man's life thus changed by the whales he hunts. It is a complex novel worthy of study.

I found this bumper sticker at www.zazzle.com
I may just have to buy it.

Thanks so Rachel at 1001 books and Book Snob Wannabe for reading this book with me. Thanks also to my friend Trudy for suggesting the blog readalong. I hope you all are relieved and happy you read it. To those who haven't read it yet, I challenge you to read it!!

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #5

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #5

Pages read: 402-499
Chapters read: 84-104

On this whaling voyage Ishmael has taught the reader every thing we need to know about the Sperm whale, from his spout to his tail. He describes each part of the whale in finite detail and I get the feeling he is proud to hunt and witness such amazing creatures.

He talks about the pods of the Sperm whale and we learn from Ishmael that the whales travel in all male groups, all female groups and the old male whales travel alone. I found this chapter interesting as well as when he witnesses the mother whales with their young.

He then details the ship and the process of collecting the blubber to make the oil. He goes through each part of the ship like he is the reader's tour guide and explains how the oil is melted down in try-pots, where the barrels are stored and how the ship is cleaned. How the process is continually repeated when a new whale is captured.

Ahab continues to search for Moby Dick and rarely makes appearances in the book. He appears only to inquire other ship captains if they have seen the great white whale known as Moby Dick. He does meet another captain who had lost his arm and refuses to hunt for Moby Dick as he prefers to keep his one arm intact. So Captain Ahab continues his mad search for the Great White Whale.

Some of my favorite quotes this week:

"Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye." page 409

"Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic." page 411

"Book!, you lie there; the fact is you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts." page 473

There is 125 pages left in my volume of Moby Dick, I will savor the last week of my reading experience in the woods of Wisconsin. Please check out the other blogs, Book Snob Wannabe and Rachel at 1001 Books participating in this journey. Have a great reading week.

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #4

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #4

Pages read this week: 300-401
Chapters read this week: 59-83

Only 52 chapters and 224 pages left to go and I will be done with Moby Dick. I am so proud of myself for reading this far. The reading is going pretty good now as I have picked up a natural rhythm when reading this story. I was reading my 100 pages from Tuesday to Friday with 25 pages a day, but last week I read from Tuesday to Thursday and finished my pages a day early. This week I plan to read all my pages during the Once Upon a Read-a-Thon and finish by Wednesday. Hopefully I am going to write my post early and schedule it for Monday as I will be lost in the woods at Boy Scout camp next week.

The beginning of this section of the book begins with the sighting of a squid and the first Sperm whale kill. It was gruesome and crazy and amazing. Melville really makes you feel amazed at the difficulty of the chase and kill of a whale and great sadness as the whale gives up his life for the sake of mankind's selfish needs. Ishmael then narrates how the dead whale is brought to the side of the boat and tied there for the night and how the sharks hover and tear at the whale carcass. He then explains to the reader how the whale is cut up and disposed of including obtaining the special and fine spermaceti oil located in the whale's skull.

Then the crew chases and kills a Right whale and the Pequod has a whale tied up to each side of the boat with massive amounts of sharks circling. Ishmael launches into comparisons between the two different types of whales, which I actually found quite interesting and found myself looking at the pictures of the whales in the back of the book and studying the ship and implements used to strip the whale of its blubber so it can be boiled down into barrels of oil. The Sperm whale typically yields 100 barrels of oil.

These whales are ginormous. I can't even begin to picture in my mind how massively large they are. Ishmael explains how Tashtego falls into a whale's skull and is actually entombed in there until rescued. Today the Sperm whale is an endangered species and the ban on hunting these whales began in 1987. Some countries still illegally hunt this whale.

Ahab questions every whaling boat that happens by about Moby Dick and if they have sighted the great white whale. I enjoy the Gam between the Captains and crew and look forward to the Pequod meeting new ships on the voyage because they abound with whaling stories.

I am continuing my intellectual voyage by reading pages 402-500 this week. Be sure to join Rachel at 1001 books and Book Snob Wannabe as they sail the foreign seas looking for the infamous whale called Moby Dick.

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #3

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #3

Pages read this week- 194-299
Chapters read this week-41-58

I am officially half way done with Moby Dick! Yahoo! This makes me very happy. The pages I read last week were very enjoyable and I had no trouble finishing 100 pages by Friday. In fact I wanted to keep reading.

The storytelling part of the book is picking up. This section of my reading began with the only chapter in the book titled Moby Dick. Ishmael begins to tell stories and legends about the Spermaceti whale and the rumors and fables associated to Moby's character.

This is the first time the Pequod's crew lowers their boats to give chase to a whale. Ishmael barely survives and is wondering if this happens all the time. The crew responds that yes, being a whaler means you are risking your life. So Ishmael writes a rough draft of his will.

I wonder if the people around the world using the whale oil, wearing whale bone corsets, and burning whale candles knew the horrors and dangers that whaling men incur for their daily luxuries. This could be one reason why Melville chose to write his book and may be one of the reasons why the book didn't sell at the time it was published. People needed oil to survive but wanted to remain ignorant of how it was obtained.

I am learning a lot from reading this book. There are so many religious and historical references and I wish I had the time to look them all up. I would love to see an edition of this book that explains in detail what they mean because in some cases I feel as if I am missing some important meaning. The edition would probably end up being over 1000 pages. Pictures would be cool too. Ishmael explains some of the monstrous pictures and more accurate artwork depicting the whale hunt, I would love to have that in the book too.

One thing I have noticed about Melville's writing is that each chapter ends with an excellent quote. I can't wait to read the last sentence of every chapter. This last sentence is usually full of depth and meaning. Here are a couple:

"For one, I gave myself up to the abandonment of the time and the place;but while yet all arush to encounter the whale, could see naught in that brute but the deadliest ill." (Page 203, Chapter 41)

"God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates." (Page 220, Chapter 44)

I am continuing my intellectual voyage on the Pequod. Pages to be read this week (300-400).
Don't forget to check out the other bloggers who are sailing the intellectual high seas with me. Book Snob Wannabe and Rachel at 1001 books.

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #2

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #2

Pages read 100-195
Chapters read 19-40

The second part of this reading voyage was a bit harder than the first. I firmly believe that Moby Dick must be read with a full mind in tune to the story, not half a mind that is busy thinking about other things. I spent most of my week reading with half a mind and had to re-read a lot. My plan is to read 25 pages a night, Tuesday through Friday and it did not work this week. By Friday I only had 60 pages out of 100 read so I was far behind. I did manage to catch up on the weekend but you know it is a busy week when all you read is 60 pages out of one book!

The second part begins with lots of foreboding. As Ishmael and Queequeg are heading to board the ship, they meet up with Elijah on the street whose prophetic utterances seem to disturb Ishmael. They board the Pequod and set sail Christmas day. Ishmael goes chapter by chapter introducing the crew, from Captain Ahab, to the Chief Mate named Starbuck and many others including the harpooners. I wonder if the Starbucks coffee shop is named after the Starbuck in this story.

Ishmael narrates an extensive chapter that is an small encyclopedia of the whales known to man at the time. The whales they are hunting are the Right Whale and the Sperm Whale. This part of the book continues to set up the voyage by explaining what happens at meal times and how they spot whales from the Mast-Head. There are tons and tons of historical references and I understand most of them but unfortunately some are lost to me.

Captain Ahab shows himself on the Quarter Deck and calls "Everybody Aft". He holds a meeting on the deck to tell the crew that they are sailing and searching only for Moby Dick, the whale who took his leg. The man who sights Moby first gets a gold doubloon. So they whole crew is now involved in Ahab's maniacal revenge on a whale and Starbuck and I believe it will be their doom. Lots of foreboding happening in this section of the book.

I read the last 30 pages when I was camping and we had two big thunderstorms roll through at the same moment in the book when a squall was coming up. It was kinda eerie. So that is where I left the story, a squall is coming and so is the first sighting of Moby Dick.

Two other bloggers are reading this book in the challenge so please pay them a visit and check out their blog posts on Moby. I can't wait to see what their reading experience entailed. Thanks to Rachel at 1001 books and Book Snob Wannabe and for joining the challenge as well as all the book readers out there!

I am continuing my voyage aboard the Pequod and start to chase the big, bad, whale. Hoping to stay dry this time. This week pages to be read are 196-300. Wish me luck!

Moby Dick Reading Challenge - Week #1

Pages read: 1-99
Chapters read 1-18

Yeah, I completed the first 99 pages of Moby Dick and guess what, it wasn't that hard. I psyched myself up to believing the Great American Novel was going to be boring and difficult to read but I was wrong. In fact, it was downright entertaining. I actually laughed out loud a few times.

Call me Ishmael is the famous first sentence of Moby Dick. Ishmael is the narrator of the story who wants to be a whaler. Whale blubber is the oil of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many men risk their lives to capture and kill these giant sea creatures. The first 99 pages of the book covers Ishmael's journey to Nantucket and subsequent employment on Captain Ahab's whaler called the Pequod. Along the way he meets a harpooner named QueeQueg and shares a bed with him. They become fast friends and vow to sail out on the same ship. QueeQueg is the most interesting character in the story so far.

While reading Moby Dick, I am reminded of the book, Ahab's Wife. I am so glad I read it first as it really sets me up to understand Moby Dick better. Plus, Ahab's wife and son are mentioned in chapter sixteen. If you haven't read Ahab's Wife it would be an excellent novel to read after you've finished with Moby Dick as well.

There are lots and lots of religious references in Moby Dick. The first 99 pages referenced Jonah and the Whale, Noah's Ark and quoted a few Bible passages. Either Melville was a religious man or men on whaling ships knew that life was short and risky and had a need be religious. Probably both. Ishmael states that QueeQueg is a pagan and finds important the worshiping and fasting for his idol. Melville mentions Ramadan and I am wondering if maybe QueeQueg is not a pagan but Muslim.

Here is how I accomplished my reading this week. On Tuesday through Friday I read 25 pages each day. This allowed my to have my weekends free to read another book as well as reflect on what I read in Moby Dick. I am going to try and do this again.

Two other bloggers are reading this book in the challenge so please pay them a visit and check out their blog posts on Moby. I can't wait to see what their reading experience entailed. Thanks to Rachel at 1001 books and Book Snob Wannabe and for joining the challenge as well as all the book readers out there!

Tomorrow, I set sail on the Pequod for the week and will update you on my progress next Monday. Happy Reading!

Moby Dick Reading Challenge

It's official, I am starting to read Moby Dick on Tuesday June 15th, 2010. I sincerely hope you can read along with me. My plan is to read 100 pages in a week, with my week beginning on Tuesdays. On the following Monday is when I will blog about the chapters read. It should take approximately six weeks to finish the book. I warn you there may be spoilers in my weekly Moby blog. If you plan to participate please leave me a comment and promote it on your blog if you write one.
I am looking forward to completing this Great American Novel and then ordering my new Moby Dick T-shirt.

Moby Dick Read-a-long

Moby Dick Read-a-long 2010

Have you ever wanted to read the Great American Novel, Moby Dick? Well here is your chance. I am starting a read-a-long this month. The book is a little over 600 pages long. So I propose to read 100 pages a week for six weeks and accomplish the great feat of reading Moby Dick in its entirety. I am hoping to start reading around the week of June 14th or June 21st.

Here what inspired this reading adventure for me. Number one, I read Ahab's Wife two summers ago (700 pages) by Sena Jeter Naslund and loved every single word. It is such a beautiful book about Captain Ahab and his wife. Second, It is in the book, 1001 BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU DIE and I am busy trying to read the books on this list with a friend of mine and we agreed to read it. Third, I am intimidated by this book and so when I finish reading this book I plan to purchase myself a lovely T-Shirt from a store called OUT OF PRINT. I really, really want this T-shirt.

Look for future posts with a graphic and link. Mark your calenders for a June 15th or June 21st start date and get a copy of Moby Dick. I can't wait to take us all on a reading journey with Captain Ahab.

Moby Dick book cover t-shirt

Moby Dick book cover t-shirt

I just discovered this awesome website that sells T-Shirts based on out of print book covers. My BIG plan this summer is to conquer Ahab's whale of a tale called Moby Dick. I am not reading this by myself for that would be twice as crazy and so I am reading it with a friend as we provide moral support and encouragement to FINISH the book. I have just decided that if I finish this book I am buying myself this T-Shirt as a reward that I will wear proudly. I think the shirt and reading the difficult tome that is Moby Dick, will be an ego booster and give me major bragging rights. I can't wait to own this shirt! Oh and the cool thing is that for every shirt that is bought a book is donated to a community in need. Click on the link to view the shirt. They have many more book titles to choose from. I am totally ready for MOBY DICK. Bring it on Melville.