Now You Can Read 'Moby Dick' In Five Minutes

Your TBR list is about to get a whole lot less intimidating, thanks to this adorable artist’s impressions of classic books. Jennie Ottinger was freaking out about all the books she had yet to read (we’ve all been there, Jennie), so she decided to make the task a little easier for herself — and read the Spark Notes. Her redesigned versions, complete with new front covers and hilarious handwritten summaries, are so cute you may never read a whole book again.

We all want to join in to the lively discussions of Moby Dick at dinner parties with our sophisticated friends, but who has time to actually read it? It’s a busy world out there, and in between re-reading Northanger Abbey and live-tweeting my journey home from work, I just don’t have time to sit down and read 700 pages of men chasing whales. Luckily, now I don’t have to. Ottinger’s summary, which admits that Moby Dick sounds “more tedius (sic) than the war parts of War and Peace,” focuses only on the fun stuff — like the fact that “whales are nothing if not very very big.” Got it, thanks. She even signposts helpful “metaphor alert[s]” to give you something good to say at even the most pretentious dinner parties.

So you don’t need to shudder next time you look at the ever-increasing pile of books you need to read. And you don’t need to struggle through Crime and Punishment just to impress your friends, if what you really want to read is Ella Enchanted . Just pick up Jennie Ottinger’s Spark Notes, brush up on the highlights, and cross a few books off the ol’ TBR list. And then settle down with Twilight for the 15th time — nobody’s judging.

Image: perronjeremie/Pixabay