Here, slightly late, are my Nonfiction November Week 2 Book Pairings. This is such a fun concept. I've really enjoyed trawling my way through everyone's pairings over at Sarah's Book Shelves.
A few weeks ago I started listening to the Moby Dick Big Read on a whim. I'd never given serious consideration to reading Moby Dick. It's too big, I don't like big books and I cannot lie. Anything over 500 pages is a big struggle for me. I don't like starting them. The Penguin Classics paperback of Moby Dick is 720 pages. That would take me quite some time. Literally months if I was to read a print version. But I was really keen to give a free podcast a go. And much to my surprise about a third of the way through I'm still really enjoying it, although they're just launching the boats for the first time and I'm really not looking forward to the grittier parts of whaling.
My somewhat unexpected enjoyment of Moby Dick has made me ponder other things. Will I come to read Nathaniel Philbrick's Why Read Moby-Dick? I hope that I would if I get through Moby Dick, or perhaps the argument to read it is even stronger if I don't get through Moby Dick. And it's only 131 pages! Of course Nathaniel Philbrick also wrote In the Heart of the Sea, maybe I should read that too....
I also saw Reni Eddo-Lodge speak at Melbourne Writers Festival in a fabulous talk with Benjamin Law. You can listen to it online here. I bought her book after I got home.
Although I could finally get to reading Maxine Beneba Clarke's The Hate Race, which I bought last year, it's a memoir about growing up black in Australia.
I read/listened to Moby Dick earlier this year and surprisingly enjoyed it. Of course, if I would have had to read it for a class or on a particular time table, I probably would have hated it! Good luck getting through, there is whaling to come.
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