Spent $85 on that fancy annotated Moby Dick and it was a total waste

My book club picked Moby Dick for next month and I thought splurging on the annotated edition from the local shop would help me get through it. The notes are so dense and academic that I spend more time reading tiny footnotes than the actual story. It cost me $85 and I still haven't finished chapter 3 because I keep getting distracted by all the whale blubber trivia. Has anyone else regretted buying a special edition for a hard read?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron7404d ago

Man that sucks, I feel you - I did the same thing with Infinite Jest and ended up just reading the actual story straight through like @brianm66 suggested, and honestly it worked way better without getting bogged down in all the extra stuff.

wendy8206d ago

$85 for a book that's basically turned into a homework assignment? Sounds like you paid for a college course in whale anatomy. I would've just bought the regular paperback for $12 and saved the rest for something that doesn't require a magnifying glass. Honestly, those annotated editions are a trap. They make you feel smart for buying them but then you spend all your time reading the notes and forget what the actual story is about.

brianm666d ago

$85 seems like a lot for a book you're not even enjoying... Moby Dick is a slog no matter what edition you get, so blaming the footnotes feels like a stretch. Maybe just skip the annotations and read the plain text, see if the story holds up on its own.