<p>So I have to read Moby Dick, Pierre, and the Confidence Man by Herman Melville this year. :O</p>
<p>Are they good books? It’s for a huge project</p>
<p>Moby Dick is the worst book ever written.</p>
<p>Moby Dick - Goddamn boring. Hundreds of pages just about a sailor who is ****ed at a whale for doing something insignificant and neurotically stalks it down and tries to kill it. No special plot.</p>
<p>Confidence Man - This book is okay. An inspiring book.</p>
<p>Melville is generally bland, except for Typee, which was more popular during his lifetime than his other works but has fallen since because nowadays only masochists read Melville</p>
<p>Hahahahaha. I’ve only read Bartleby the Scrivener. It was short which meant I actually could appreciate it. Had it not been, I would have become increasingly frustrated. But…good luck! It could be fine for you. Anyway, Bartleby was good in a lot of ways (e.g. interesting themes, good imagery, etc), but was just really slow-paced.</p>
<p>^ Billy Budd is the same. The cloud imagery at the end was brilliant, but the whole thing was just so glacially slow that it was overshadowed by my desire to smother myself</p>
<p>I will read billy budd too, but that’s not apart of my project.</p>
<p>It is about twice as long as its length would suggest</p>
<p>Did you have a choice?</p>
<p>If not, that’s somewhat surprising that your teacher would require you to read three to four books by the same author.</p>
<p>my english teacher (honors english) is really intensive, especially for an honors course. we have to read about 20 books this year. we’re doing a massive project on an author, and I chose herman melville.</p>
<p>I chose not to do AP lang because it’s worse (in my school) lool :D</p>
<p>Can you alternate your choice?</p>
<p>It would probably be beneficial to view the summaries of some of the authors’ books before you decide upon an author.</p>
<p>Probably not but I could pull some strings. I’ve read the summaries and I think they are ok. But summaries never do enough justice so I posted this thread</p>
<p>I like classic literature (at least the small number of classics I’ve read), so I think this will be both an interesting step deeper</p>
<p>Have you considered some of the Russian authors (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Nabokov (although Nabokov’s works are from the 20th century)?</p>
<p>If those summaries intrigue you though, then perhaps you’ll be fond of the books.</p>
<p>I’d love to do dostoevsky or tolstoy. Or charles dickens. Those are high on my list, but unfortunately I’m taking honors f***ing american literature. so dull. hahaha</p>
<p>Do Gogol - he’s the most interesting Russian author. Tolstoy’s novels are too long for you to be able to read them for a project, whereas Gogol has written some fine plays and novels of manageable length to go along with his many short stories</p>