Fascinating characters. Ishmael the dreamy narrator, Queequeg the noble cannibal, mad Ahab, devout Starbuck, creepy Fedallah...Stubb who takes care to die in his underwear, cabin boy Pip who loses his mind while adrift in the sea...Yes, it's a stir-crazy time on the ol' Pequod. "Eccentric" doesn't BEGIN to describe the cast. The plot is downright epic. The story of a sea voyage fated to end in destruction -- a hunt for the seemingly invincible monster of the deep. The captain descends deeper and deeper into madness, disregarding signs that say do not challenge the White Whale. It's part tragedy, part character drama, part adventure, part comedy, part allegory, part psychological journey...that's a lot of parts to enjoy. The writing. Oh yes, the writing. Not for everyone, I'll admit (*coughcoughHemingwayfanscoughcough*), but I really have to say that the florid, twisting sentences of Melville have me swooning. "Buoyed up by that coffin, I floated softly on a soft and dirge-like main..." It's all half poetry, half simple and engaging language, ALL brilliance. It's really not that long. A lame reason to like a book, but it's only 300 pages. There's this weird idea that Moby Dick is an obscenely long book, but it's really only about as long as the average novel. It's just so rich that it seems longer, I suppose. It's a major influence on lots of literature. Again, a lame reason to like a book, but it IS a very important work in literary history. Sailors! Cannibals! Whale hunts! Prophecies! Madmen! Intrigue! Storms! Power struggles! Come on, this is exciting! It's very quotable. It's amusing. Seriously, it is. Especially towards the beginning there's a lot of really quite funny scenes. It's the only novel ever written with an entire chapter devoted to the whale penis. It's a good book. It's not stodgy or boring, it's exciting and intriguing and funny and heartbreaking and beautiful and inspiring and terrifying. It's Moby Dick, or the Whale