Anisha's Book Bits & Pieces, started April 2026

This is kind of like a journal of my book related bits and pieces. It turns out I love books and reading, and to make up for not reading I am trying to read a variety of things before I decide what I enjoy reading.
I want to read more science books, I don’t know why, it’s always been a fascination, and this is the year I finally feel I can make a start on this. Reading Homer’s two epics has got me started on wanting to read as may old stories and myths I can around the world, and it turns out I like fiction as well as nonfiction.

Also, reading short stories has been better than I imagined. I guessed I would read more authors, and different types of stories, and I have but I had underestimated how rewarding it would be.
But there’s so much more I want to read and cover, and I am not sure where this is going, I hope it becomes clearer as I keep reading.

Reading Goethe's Faust part one for the second time, I was thinking how this story never gets old, today maybe the most popular kind of Faust would be worn down by their job, giving it everything so bills can be paid. But then I wondered if this is like Faust, or maybe it’s just living or figuring out life? Or maybe the story of Faust is more complicated than it seems.

It was fascinating to read the second part of Faust, having read more books I got more from it this time. I am trying to change my approach to reading books, I think it's now okay not to get everything on the first read. Thinking like this is making it easier to finally get to Moby-Dick, a book that for the last few years ends up on next year's pile to read, but not this year, this is the year I am finally reading this in June. To make it easier, I am listening to an audio adaptation and reading the screenplay by Ray Bradbury for the 1956 movie directed by John Houston.

As I get ready to read Moby Dick next month, I've discovered today that there have been musical productions of this novel, I am trying to imagine this, yeah, I can't 😂

This has always been a big read for me, so to get ready for it, I am revisiting an audio drama, almost finished and have a second one lined up, reading a screenplay and have started to watch a tv mini-series (starring Ethan Hawke, Donald Sutherland, and Gillian Andersen, 2011 production).

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison

I picked this up after reading The Invisible Man, I just thought I would enjoy it. When I was lining up my books for this year, this had to be one of them.

From the first page the characters are wonderfully drawn.

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison

I am enjoying this but I wish the formatting of my kindle book was better; it's lucky I've read a lot of screenplays so I am not getting as lost as I could be as the story flits between different timelines.

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison --- Faust by Goethe --- Moby Dick and Bartleby by Herman Melville

Going from Faust to Juneteenth to Moby Dick, was easier to plan than do. Reading them, even Bartleby and Moby Dick (which currently I am reading as a screenplay) has been fascinating as each has taken me down to road to look things up in my other books to see the worlds these stories are set in.

All three are driven by a philosophy that raises so many fascinating questions and challenges how I think of stories and what I expect from them. I like stories with a linear structure, likeable characters and a beginning, middle and end, they are reassuring and the kind where I can just switch-off and unwind, but these are something else, they are like stories that exist on another plane. I don't know if only a book format suits these kinds of stories, I guess I will find out when I come to reading Moby Dick the novel next month.

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison read 50%

There’s all this tension that has been built up, as it remains a mystery of why a senator got shot; just when I think some of the mystery has been unravelled, I am also left unsure as another revelation has been made.

This is such a joy to read with how the character dynamics and how they are drawn, I am also enjoying the change between natural and lyrical writing. In places, because of the formatting, I am rereading pages to not loose my bearings as this is constantly switching between flashback and current time.

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison read 87%

So many beautiful passages about hope and loss,, and so many passages are written like they fly off the page where meaning is transitory; just when it feels tangible it becomes vague but in way that it leaves an impression.

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison 📗✔️ read 100% -- 4.5*

The ending was unexpected but perfect for everything that went before. This is one of those reads where you just a moment to gather yourself before moving on.

The Trial by Franz Kafka read 3%

I’ve always wanted to read this after seeing the trailer of an Orson Welle’s movie, which I still haven’t watched but I thought this was about a criminal case; I’m new to Franz Kafka’s work. I think this is going to be an interesting read.

The Trial by Franz Kafka read 51%

I was expecting this to look at the familiar world in a new way, and it does do this but it took me a couple of chapters to get my bearings.

I like the story layers from how living spaces are used as a place of trial. I am not sure where this is going but I am intrigued.

The Trial by Franz Kafka read 100%

Intriguing read but this feels unfinished and not as enjoyable as the Kafka short stories I’ve been reading alongside this. The chapters are a mix of quirky, absurd scenes with naturalistic scenes, which I like but this doesn’t work for me – it feels like this is still in draft mode that is playing with a lot of ideas for the story to find its way. Having said this, I want to come back to this and read it again down the line.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville



I’ve listened again to a BBC audio dramatisation of Moby Dick, listened first time to an abridged version and read the 1956 screenplay by Ray Bradbury. Having done this prep, I'm ready to read this now, and starting tomorrow.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 14% read

I was not expecting this, there were clues of the comedy of Ishmael making sense of Queequeg and their friendship in the screenplay and the adaptions but just to read it is even better. I'm not sure if these moments were supposed to be comical or if I am seeing it that way. Queequeg also seems to be the foil for Ishmael to explore his religious views.

In the novel, Father Mapple's sermon of Jonah made more sense and I could now see it's foreshadowing of what's to come.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 15% read

More on the town (chapter 14), Nantucket, as Ishmael continues to survey his friendship with Queequeg (chapters 11 and 13) along with details with Queequeg’s background (chapter 12). So many favourite moments, one was with how Queequeg manages the taunts from a young person, and what happens after (chapter 13).

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 22% read

More comical moments, I especially enjoyed the difference in views of the two captains that Ishmael meets in chapters 16, 18 and 20. Not having read the bible, it would take the screenplay for me to understand the role of the stranger who approached them in chapter 19; I’m reading an edition without notes, and so looked up Elijah in my other books. In the 2011 mini-series Billy Boyd, of the movie trilogy adapted from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, plays this role, and it’s a nice touch where they also get Billy to sing a few lines as Elijah, he has a very haunting voice and although this mini-series had less of supernatural feel than the screenplay, looking back on this scene it’s a nod to the atmosphere that Herman Melville builds in his novel.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 25% read

Pequod has left the harbour (chapter 22), and we are told more about some of the crew (chapters 26 & 27) but Ishmael’s view of Starbucks in ch 26 doesn’t make sense to me, he says:

But were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance, the complete abasement of poor Starbuck’s fortitude, scarce might I have the heart to write it; for it is a thing most sorrowful, nay shocking, to expose the fall of valour in the soul.

and feels critical, especially when he mentions this but then says he doesn’t want to put him down, without seeing this is what he is doing. He doesn't not talk like this about the others, well not so far, it's intriguing why and what's going to happen.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 26% read

3 chapters (28 – 30) dedicated to Ahab, leaving a sense of his looming presence.

An eerie moment (chapter 30):

In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

Leviathan is a reference I looked up (along with Jonah and the whale / fish) when reading the screenplay, which mentioned it several times. Now knowing this adds to the eeriness.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 30% read

This was a coincidence, chapter 32 - Cetology Ishmael, in giving his cataloguing of whales mentions Ray, Linnaeus and Willoughby, whom I was reading about in Science: A History 1543 - 2001, these are two reads that I just happen to be read at the same time, because of this, what could have been a dry chapter turned into an interesting one.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 41% read

So much has happened from Ahab speaking to the men and getting them revved up to hunt the Moby Dick (chapter 36), to (I think) where we Ishmael is looking back and presenting the events that have happened; Ishmael comes across as if he’s defending Ahab’s obsession of getting revenge on Moby Dick (chapters 41 – 46), I’m not sure I agree and I need to read more to understand why Ishmael believes this.
Chapter 47 ends with a sighting of a whale.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 44% read

I’ve read 50 chapters already, this is a surprise as i was thinking this novel would take 2 months to read. Some are short, like chapter 30 is only 4 short paragraphs, maybe roughly 400 words if that, so that chapter is max 2 pages.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 52% read

In the last few chapters Ishmael has been thinking about the likeness of whales in art, citing many examples and noting it’s lack of accuracy, I’m not sure if I would have liked these as much if I wasn’t reading about the history of science as well, though I am not sure if it’s relevant but it kind of feels relevant. It’s chapter 59 where Ishmael returns back to the story with Daggoo who thinks he’s sited Moby Dick.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 55% read

A landmark moment, with having read past 50% of the book and the chapters, having read 64 chapters of the 135 (plus epilogue).

The whale is not Moby Dick and takes another chapter to be seen. After meditating on whales, whale-fishing / hunting, Ishmael return back to the story showing Stubbs feeling the pride of what he has achieved and bossing Fleece around by criticising his cooking skills. Fleece stands his ground with the last line he mumbles without coming across as insubordinate.