Starting small, at just 720 pages, we have American author Melville’s magnum opus.

Moby-Dick is about the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, who seeks revenge on a giant white sperm whale that previously bit his leg off at the knee.

The narrator is a sailor named Ishmael, hence one of the most famous first lines in literature: “Call Me Ishmael.”

The book is strange, wise, funny and profound and widely considered to be one of the greatest American novels.