Ahoy, mates.
Sorry. This is what happens when you’re reading “Moby-Dick.” You start saying “ahoy” and “avast” and “thar she blows” in front of people who have no idea why you’re talking like Popeye.
But I’m talking this way today, mates, because it’s time for the midterm report from the Moby-Dick Procrastinators Book Club.
In late April, I wrote a column about how several colleagues and I, regretting that we’d never read Herman Melville’s great 19th century novel, decided to embark on the quest. At a leisurely pace of six pages a day, we calculated, we could be done by September. We invited Tribune readers to join us.
And thus, with the wind of collective resolve at our backs, we set forth on our literary expedition.
Two months later, how are we faring?
“Your recent column about your book club reading the dreaded Moby Dick inspired me to do so also,” Tribune reader Sharon Grieger emailed last week. “I had begun it several times and got bogged down, even though my undergraduate degree was in English. I finished a couple of days ago — reading between 10 and 12 pages a day. I quite enjoyed parts of it, and I owe you my gratitude as I feel better about myself as a result.”
Improved self-esteem, mates. What better incentive to read this book?
“I’m at the half way point of Melville’s masterpiece Moby-Dick,” emailed Vincent Kelly. “Thanks for your suggestion! As I read my six to ten pages per day, the dictionary and Bible are close at hand. It’s been an enriching voyage. Although I hold a bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I never took a literature course, so this is a new avenue for me, each day a new vista.”
Each day a new vista. What better incentive to read this book?
Unfortunately, some procrastinators are gonna procrastinate even when they vow otherwise, which means that some of our fellow travelers are like Mary Beth Nolan, who recently posted on our Facebook page a photo of the novel with the comment: “I’ve carried this damn book for weeks and still haven’t read a page.”
She is not alone. Even some members of our founding group haven’t started.
“Yet,” says Jodi Cohen, a ProPublica reporter who claims among her excuses that until this week she was on the library waiting list.
“I confess!” says Tribune reporter Jennifer Smith Richards. “I haven’t read a single word. It’s not that I don’t intend to. It’s that I found other books I felt compelled to read first. So there it sits. Staring at me with big whale eyes, calling out for me to open to that first page.”
Listen up, mates. A journey of 600 pages starts with the first paragraph.
And once you start you’re apt to find that “Moby-Dick” is unexpectedly funny, engaging and instructive.
Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair — who, in her words, “harpooned my literary white whale” in a mere month — likens it to a cup of New England clam chowder.
“Rich, surprisingly flavorful and fulfilling,” she says. “But you don’t have to gorge yourself on it. A little goes a long way.”
Our colleague John Keilman, despite calling it “a peculiar narrative,” has also finished and liked it, but offers a warning: “Definitely get the version that has illustrations.”
For all its detail, “Moby-Dick” may leave readers wanting more. Stacy lists things she has Googled while reading:
“How do you get oil from a sperm whale? Where do you store the oil on a boat? Is Starbucks named after Starbuck in Moby Dick? Is there a same-sex marriage in Moby Dick? How do you use a blubber fork? How do you lose toes with a blubber fork?”
As for me, I’m halfway through. I love it. I’ve learned that loving it means not reading too much at once or too fast. Reading it, I feel like I’m traveling in space and time. I did put it aside for a while to read “The Overstory,” Richard Powers’ recent novel about trees.
At one point in Powers’ book, the question is posed: When is the best time to plant a tree?
The answer: Twenty years ago.
When is the next best time?
The answer: Now.
The same could apply to reading “Moby-Dick.” Feel free to join our quest on Facebook. And thanks to the many people who have written to tell me about their “Moby” experiences . I’ve appreciated them all even if I haven’t been able to answer yet.
Two months left. You can do it, mates.
