Moby Dick

Set aboard the whaling ship Pequod, Herman Melville's novel is narrated by Ishmael, an ordinary sailor who travels from Manhattan to New Bedford to sign on for a whaling voyage. There he meets Queequeg, a tattooed harpooneer, and the two join a crew commanded by Captain Ahab. Ahab lost a leg to Moby Dick, a giant white sperm whale, and he bends a voyage meant for profit into a hunt for revenge, over the objections of his chief mate Starbuck. Long passages on whaling, shipboard life and the science of whales sit beside songs, soliloquies and stage directions. Melville drew on his own years as a common sailor, and the novel first appeared in 1851.

Steve Jobs was reported to have named it among his favorite books and to have reread it often as a teenager. It also appears on a list of every book Barack Obama recommended during his presidency.