Whilst other people may play games on their phone when they are waiting for a bus I like to read books. I always try to keep one ready. I've been catching up on some classic novels that I've never read. Previously I've read Frankenstein and Don Quixote, but now I'm on Moby Dick.
One of the obstacles to reading old books is that the use of language can be very different to how we speak now, but I find I get used to it. Still, this book is more like poetry than a story at times with very flowery language. I have to wonder if anyone ever really spoke like some of the characters. Obviously attitudes have changed in over 160 years, but the tone is very pro-whaling. Back then it was a thriving industry and those who sailed in hunt of whales must have seemed like romantic heroes, even if the reality was different. Life in general could be dangerous back then, but sailing to the ends of the earth to hunt giant creatures must have been a risky career move.
I'm only a quarter of the way through and we haven't met the whale yet, although he has been mentioned. Captain Ahab doesn't show up for about 150 pages. I'm going to stick with it. There was a 1956 movie which I think I may have seen, but I just discovered it's on Youtube. Not sure how legal that is.
There's another movie called In the Heart of the Sea that is based on events that may have inspired this novel.
I've not seen them in a while, but @ahab and @mobydick were active on Steemit for a while. The old battle still continues!
Oh, and it also somehow inspired a Led Zep song with a big drum solo.
Steem on!
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars
If this post is over seven days old you can vote up one of my newer posts to reward me.
It's a strange book. The drama drowns in lofty allegories and very down to earth descriptions of whaling. I was working on a fisher-boat on the Faroe Islands when I read it so I somehow found all the fishing parts interesting, but I was also a bit disappointed. But stick with it anyway - it has its own fascinating moments trying to unite the hard daily life of a seaman with a biblical allegorical drama.
There have been a few WTF moments already. Nobody would speak like that really. It reminds me a bit of Shakespeare.
Yes, he tries very hard :)
great choice! of course, you can't do wrong choosing classics ;)
I'd like to read Moby Dick in English, but I remember a very rich boat slang in there that scares me ;)
I don't understand every word of it, but I don't think it's essential. The characters are interesting
Not sure I have read that book.. I believe I saw the old movie. I bought 3 books the other day at the book store, they can be quite expensive. I do buy kindle but there is nothing like being able to pick up a book.
I used to collect books thinking one day they would all be replaced by kindle. Then our house fire came, guess that was not my calling.
A lot of my books are either gifts or second hand. Some of the ebooks I read are freebies
Frankenstein, Don Quixote, Moby Dick... classics are always a good choice! I've always read many different books from very different authors and it's always a pleasure! Ok, maybe not always, but many times ^_^ Now I'm reading The museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, maybe after this I read again Moby Dick!
I am still
readinglistening to books with the app Overdrive. I do have a hard time continuing if the readers voice isn't working for me (too slow, too monotone ... accent is too difficult for me to understand, etc etc). I wonder what kind of voice someone would read Moby Dick in? Hmmm, i will have to see if it's available on my app! Haha.I tried to watch the movie you mentioned, Heart of the Sea and I don't think it ever kept my interest, oddly enough. I really wanted to watch it and I tried a few times, but it lost my interest every time. Ha haha.
Such better than playing telephone games... Good way to spend his time. Also I think there would be simplified version of those books no ? I tried to read Descartes one time, I found a 3 versions book : latin, old edition and recent speaking one. Don'te remember the edition but that seems some people try to make this books accessible for all..
............
@permatek - My last post : Around the World : Ljubljana
One of the best stories ever written.
The only novels i have ever read was The Hobbit and Of Mice and Men, since then i have only read biographies
I've read hundreds of books of all sorts. Some were biographies. A good novel is something special. It's the most direct way to get a story between two brains.
That is very true like you said in one of your previous people sometimes concentrate more with a book than a screen
In this case I'm reading a screen, but I find ebooks different to the web. Less distractions.
I hope you get around to reading "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra if you haven't already.
Absolute classic.
Rock on!
I did read it recently. It's a very funny book and pretty strange too
It can take a little bit to get into, but once you do it's hilarious.
I could hardly put it down.
which is your fav book till date that you would recommend to everyone to read it once ???
It's hard to recommend for everyone as we all have different tastes. I like books with geeky stuff in them and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is one of my favourites and I've read it a couple of times. His more recent Seveneves is set in space. Lord of the Rings by Tolkein is great, as is Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. I lean towards SF, fantasy and humour. See, I said it was hard :)
Thanks for writing all of your suggestions would like to read it all one by one if i could get them :) Thanks again
Never attempted Moby Dick. Zep kills that one.
Since english is my second language it is even harder to read classical books, on the other way it is easier to learn ne words, but it takes a lot of time to translate
I'd really struggle to read something like Don Quixote in the original Spanish, but then I don't speak that language :) I guess you have to find a good translation