up late tonight, reading. i've been reading a lot of modern stuff lately, but now i am very glad to get back into the classics. i'm re-reading "moby-dick" by herman melville. many say it is the greatest book ever written in the english language, second to the Bible. i agree, completely!!!

for example, here is an excerpt. it's an exposition of a portion of the Biblical book of Jonah, from the perspective of a lay preacher, preaching in a small church in New England many years ago. the preacher is describing Jonah's first night aboard the ship he boarded while trying to run away from God's mission:

"all dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's waterline, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowel's wards."

i know ...... most of my friends will think i am "cuckoo" for liking this stuff, but it is truly great literature. melville was an absolute master of the english language. his writing transports me into the time and place he describes, and his words tempt my mind to wander into delightful, philosophical wanderings.