This is more than a book, HOWEVER you WILL NOT enjoy this read unless you really give yourself entirely up to it. You have to allow Ishmael to take your hand and guide you through his winding, obsessive mind. It’s a wild ride. You have to be willing to read so many passages of whale facts that you find it funny that keeps continuing. You must be willing to learn about the disputes among the whaling community. You must be willing to read the ramblings of a narrator who gets lost in their own head every other paragraph with strange historical allusions. If you can do that you will be rewarded with a book that encompasses introspection into life, fate, religion, the depths of human character; all while keeping a hilarious, self-aware sense of humor. It really is a complete multi-faceted journey, if you can give yourself over entirely to a comedy of the mundane.

Also keep in mind this guy wrote this pre-American civil war. So there are some tough chapters, but he actually manages to have some fairly progressive takes (sometimes).