Moby Dick is considered by many to be the great American novel, and one of the classics of American literature. But it is also one of the least approachable and most difficult books in the Western literary canon. Most high school English teachers and professors don’t even bother to assign it, and if they did most students would probably use it as a doorstop. It tends to be one of those books perpetually on people’s “should read” rather than “want to read” lists.

I’m attempting to make the novel a bit more approachable by tackling it one chapter at a time. Each week a new post related to the next chapter will appear, or if not the next chapter than another piece of Moby Dick trivia, or something related to nineteenth century whaling and sailing. Like books? Like the sea? Have a weird thing about whales (don’t worry, me too!)? Do Biblical references and allusions to classical mythology butter your biscuit? Then you will love this blog! You can learn more about the project and why I’m doing it from my first post.

Photo via Flickr, courtesy of Robert