Moby Dick and Other Bits

I noticed in a couple of blog posts that a Moby Dick read along has been set up for 1 June to mid July. Somebody worked out that if you read 15 pages a day you'll get through it.  Having had the book setting on a shelf for number of years and having tried to read it without success I had another look at it.

The book itself is a beautiful book.  I bought an iPod the other week and I have been downloading music onto it and decided why not download a book.  Well there was Moby Dick and it didn't cost much so I decided to give it a try. Then I decided to listen to it while holding the book and following along. I wasn't sure I'd like that but I am really enjoying it. The thing I like most about it is the narrator reads faster than I do and I had to get used to following along at a bit faster rate but I have now settled quite nicely into it.  The chapters, of which there are 150+ are very short and I am enjoying doing a few chapters at a time.

Better than that though is I am really enjoying the story so far.  The characters of Ishmael and Queequeg  are the important characters at the moment. We are only up to Chapter 11 and so far they are on the northeast coast of America and whalers and fishermen are everywhere. He has entered into a pub and found there is no place to sleep so he had to share a bed with Queequeg, a large, cannibalistic whaler from the other side of the world.  However the friendship they establish is touching and the scenes are very funny.   I read that Herman Melville never found fame in his own lifetime and I always think that is such a shame. Imagine writing the books that he did never to get recognition and then dying only to become well known afterwards and never knowing it.

I'm still working on The Penguin History of the World and will continue to do so but at a slower pace during the next month.  As the books aren't anything alike they won't interfere with each other.

Come next week though our book group meets to discuss the Tales of AJ Fikry then we have to get stuck into Wilkie Collins Moonstone which will be another kettle of fish.  Don't know how I'll go in June because I keep looking at the Kindle Deal of the Day and see these pretty interesting looking books for .99 cents. I need to stop thinking I'll read these books in between the bigger ones. It's a lot of fun though and as we're well and truly into the shortest days of the  year with winter fast approaching, I find the evenings long and need to filling.

On the other hand I have signed up to go to the gym with my husband during the week.  I have been putting it off for a long time but with my health being what it is I had a cardiologist tell me to get on with it in so many words and start becoming aerobic.  I only use the treadmill and some of the arm machines but with 30 to 40 minutes on a treadmill I might try some audio books at the same time.  I wonder if Moby Dick with go along with a track program on a treadmill.  I'll give it a try and let you know if it works.  Maybe I can get so caught up in the story I'll forget where I am.  I'm also rather worried about the whaling aspect of this book but need to keep it separate from my political beliefs of whaling. I'll try to think of it as the great literature it is.

Well that's me for the moment.  Today is a shopping and afternoon tea day with a dear friend and her wonderful 15 year old daughter so the whaling will be put aside until this evening.  I hope everyone has a good weekend and be sure to tell me what you're up to this weekend.