In a blaze of coincidence - either that or the folks at Orion books are reading this blog, which seems 
highly unlikely, as I'm certain it's only read by close personal friends/family/people I've given ten bucks to - I have received the "Compact Edition" of Moby-Dick In Half the Time. No, really. That's what it's called. It's significantly shorter than the version a kind friend gave me a few years back (this friend perhaps overestimates my perserverance). The cover is pretty cool, too, as you can see. Is that tattooed dude Queequeg?
But now I'm feeling kinda guilty about...cheating. Is reading this too much like Clif's Notes? I never used those in high school. It was a badge of honor. And yes, OK, maybe I should've tried them when I didn't read Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man in 12th grade AP English and had to sit there praying nobody would call on me to discuss it, but I had too much pride.
When I saw the headline on this entry I thought you were making fun of me.
Posted by: amy | December 01, 2007 at 07:53 AM
There are no beauty judgments here at Between the Covers. The only things we mock are things that have proven to be bad: James Frey, Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, FSU Seminoles, etc.
Posted by: Connie | December 02, 2007 at 07:37 AM
Who read Portrait of the Artist? Not I. I tried to read Joyce's Ulysses in the afterglow of Dubliners, and briefly contemplated poking my eyes out. Portrait is only one step below Ulysses in terms of driving a reader to suicide.
Good thing no one called on me for that one either.
I'm tempted by the speedy Melville. I guess Moby Dick in half the time sounds better than good old fashioned Moby Dick-Abridged.
Posted by: SilviaC | December 02, 2007 at 10:50 PM