Melville in Hand

My 52nd birthday passed in October. My boys were very pleased with their gift to me, which I have in hand in the photo, taken in our living room in Okemos. The book is an illustrated edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, my favorite novel (even though it's hardly a novel in the technical sense, which is a subject for a different blog). I own several editions of the work and have read it many times, but I had requested a nice copy. There is nothing like a fine book in one's hands. I read a few passages to the boys. Logan has already read the work, but he has yet to make it his own. Note the stains on the knees. These are work clothes I am wearing, stuff I put on when doing the repairs and maintenance around the house. It was a Saturday night, and I hadn't yet changed out of the work clothes at the end of a day of putzing around the house.