Moby Dick

I have until 11:00 tomorrow to finish this book. I am a third of the way through it. I had to take a break. I actually have liked parts of the book a lot which is very surprising to me. I found the the first few pages hard to get past even when reading while listening to an audio version. I do this when the book is hard for me to read or listen to. I soon found that I was able to listen and get other things done. Ishmael is an interesting character but his ability to make friends with the savage, Queequeg was something i thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the reasoning he goes through to justify a good Christian man associating with a pagan.

The problem I am having is that there are sections that are boring and seem rather hard to absorb. I am sure we will talk about them in class where I will get a better understanding of some of it.I think this will prove to be a great novel but it could do without entire chapters. I am sure they are important in some way to the story but if they are so boring that you can barely stay awake while reading them were they worth the words.

So far in this class American Romanticism we have read a lot of stuff that I really didn't like. My professor is in love with Walden but I found it boring and thought Thoreau sounded like an ass half the time. I can't say he didn't have some profound ideas but I didn't enjoy reading them. My professore seems to think that people only get bored reading it if they need to be challenged to live a better life. Personally I think even Thoreau would disagree with him, as much of this book was about thinking for yourself.

I have enjoyed very little in this class but I have liked everything by Nathaniel Hawthorne and I think I will like Moby Dick over all.