Moby Dick by Herman Melville
by Herman Melville · first published 2020
42% recommend50% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Praised for its grand, powerful scope and its deep treatment of whaling and the sea; often cited as a favorite fiction pick and as a book that opens up how a novel can absorb vast amounts of detail.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…must-read for lovers of language The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel - turned me on to the various lenses through which we can conceive of and appreciate libraries; their vast power and potential Moby Dick, by Herman Melville - for really hammering home the grand, powerful potential of great literature and well-wrought language [ See also: Don Quixote; Infinite Jest]
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…Stoker (from Blindboy’s podcast episode “Paddy Dracula” I learned Stoker is from Dublin, son of a Protestant mother who told him stories, bedridden until seven years old, about the horrors of cholera) Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (further awareness of how we convert resources, this time before petrol, and for the descriptions of sea life and human relationships) For background, I’m also into contemporary sci-fi and fantasy and…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗Some of my favorite fiction books: - Seiobo There Below, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai - The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas - Moby Dick, by Herman Melville - Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy - Cuentos Completos, by Jorge Luis Borges (or at least the "Labyrinths" compilation) - A Perfect Vacuum, by Stanislaw Lem (Forewords to Non-Existent Books) - Imaginary…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗One book and two book series: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. The Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗There's a fantastic public domain audio book of it available for free https://librivox.org/moby-dick-by-herman-melville/
on “Consider the Shipwreck: Ten Books on Maritime Disasters and Ecological Collapse” ↗I just picked a book at random: Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. First thing that popped into my head. Scanning through the first chapter (thanks to Project Gutenberg) I easily found a paragraph that looks larger than the discussed comment, starting with "Lord save…
on “Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)” ↗> I just picked a book at random: Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. I think that's a poor example - Moby Dick isn't exactly praised for ease of casual reading (and internet comments should definitely fall in the category of casual reading. Relative ease is a choice,…
on “Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)” ↗I tried to read it. I don't think I got past chapter 1. Here is a free audio book of Moby Dick. https://librivox.org/moby-dick-by-herman-melville Maybe I'll try to listen to it some day.
on “Utopia Clicker” ↗Just get ChatGPT to get rid of all the irrelevant parts of Moby Dick by Herman Melville, like the parts that describe whaling in detail, and are definitely irrelevant. Personally I just read the chapter headings and first and last sentences of each para, most of the stuff in between in 99.9%…
on “Utopia Clicker” ↗Certainly, here are 50 major works that are in the public domain and not within my accessible data: Fiction: "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas "Little…
…by Leo Tolstoy - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - Moby-Dick by Herman Melville - 1984 by George Orwell - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Next year I will read more books of the…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗…by Jack London Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari White Teeth by Zadie Smith Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray Moby Dick by Herman Melville
on “Show HN: I've compiled a list of the top books for men according to 56 blogs” ↗