if melville had an editor.....

ok, so.....this week's new yorker has an ad inside the cover featuring elvis costello....maybe visa or somesuch....and he is in the background playing guitar...and in the foreground is a list of things that he (presumably) wants to do before he dies.....and on the list was 'read moby dick'....which i pointed out to the only one of my offspring present to whom i have read moby dick aloud......and he surprised me with his response.....that he hopes to read that book one day.....what?.. we read that book aloud, chapter after tedious chapter...when he was in the 5th grade...maybe the last book we ever read aloud at bedtime.......but the child in question contends that it only counts if one reads it oneself.....and that books read aloud in the 5th grade don't count.....i disagree emphatically....given that i enjoy listening to books on cd/tape.....i consider these books as 'read' as any i have breezed through to get to the end.......and i remember enough about this book read 11-12 years ago to assert that one could pull out the chapters that seem to be melville's version of a documentary on whaler's craft...and end up with actual fiction that might resemble the old man and the sea in length.....i see no reason to reread this tome.......and for my vote, it counts on the permanent record......