File this one under the category of “book-related sites we just happen to like.” The labor of love of one Meg Guroff, Power Moby-Dick is a complete online scholarly annotation of Herman Melville’s magnum opus. The notes are well-researched and unobtrusive (you can choose to toggle them on or off), while the sidebar contains links to a panoply of online Melvilleania including tribute paintings by Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth, a Lego version of the famous whale, and a retelling of Moby-Dick in the form of fifteen haiku.
Why are we recommending this site? Because we’re book geeks, that’s why. Actually, we’ll confess to never having read the novel apart from the first few chapters and scattered excerpts. (Note to fellow former English majors: if you must have an embarrassing lacuna in your classic reading repertoire, Moby-Dick is by far your best option, since it comes with a built-in, elegant excuse for having skipped it: “Ah, yes, Moby-Dick is my white whale.”) Still, Meg’s site has charmed us enough that we’re tempted to take another try—maybe on that same secluded island we’re planning a move to for the purpose of catching up on Updike.
