Is this ever going to happen ? Is it time to admit defeat ?

fancy schmancy volume perfect for the shelf

 I bought this book at least 30 years ago.  It is from the Easton Press, the first volume in a series of important books (all in the public domain ?).  Archival paper, bound in leather, with gold leaf decoration, even has a baby-blue bookmark ribbon bound in.  Pretty fancy for $5.95 or whatever it cost.  Then you had to be quick about cancelling the subsequent books in the series or  you'd be on the hook for the full price of these expensive editions.

But I've never finished reading the book.  We didn't have to read it in school.  The introduction to the book must be someone's term paper or master's thesis, but I could have skipped that, the original from 1851 didn't have it.  The book starts with the famous:  "Call me Ishmael", that I remember.  But just how far I've gotten I can't remember.  Somewhere after the point where Ishmael  encounters Queequeg or goes to church or sees Ahab nail the gold piece to the mast ?   Because of the John Huston movie version who knows ?  

The one thing I remember from the movie was Orson Welles as Father Mapple:

gotta admit the ladder looks a little spindly

  He climbs the rope ladder

not enough room for stairs

to the ships prow style pulpit and then pulls it up after himself

this brings a smile every time I see this scene

 

Orson Welles was meant for the stage

Here is that scene on Youtube:

Why not abandon the task of reading this book and listen to the audio book ?  Amazon says that would take 23 hours and 52 minutes !  An entire day !  For comparison the unabridged Bible is 80 hours.

Is it the book itself ?  It's kinda big and heavy.  I could just as easily read it on a computer or tablet.  But no matter the format: book, computer screen or audio, any of the three are a huge investment of time.

So with half the year gone and a lot of other stuff to do that should have already been done,  will I give up, again ? - probably, at least for this year but maybe not, we'll see.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm