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Denson Camp

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Denson’s Bookshelves

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currently-reading‎ (2)

read‎ (82)
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the-special-ones‎ (6)
christmas-classics‎ (2)

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Denson is Currently Reading

Denson Camp is currently reading

The Complete Works

by Michel de Montaigne

bookshelves: currently-reading

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(page 130 of 1392)
— Jan 29, 2026 10:10AM

Jan 17, 2026 07:48PM

Denson Camp is currently reading

Moby-Dick; or, the Whale

by Herman Melville

bookshelves: the-special-ones, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in July 2024

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Denson Camp said: " There are very few books on this planet that completely envelop and redefine one’s personal life within the timespan of reading; books that infuse internal monologues and personal conversations with their own flavor, attitude, and even morality. Thes There are very few books on this planet that completely envelop and redefine one’s personal life within the timespan of reading; books that infuse internal monologues and personal conversations with their own flavor, attitude, and even morality. These special, rare kinds of books become the “background radiation” of your emotional life, and, whenever looking back on the eras, inevitably demarcate one age from another. There’s no genre for this kind of book, and no easy way to explain what exactly this quality is, but what I do know is that I’ve read only two books like this in my life - Moby Dick is one of them. There are two reasons for why it falls into this category.

First, it is an utterly unique masterpiece of both style and substance, where Melville’s uncontrollable, outpouring creativity (coming in the form of digressions and explorations on the nature of reality, the desire for brotherhood, the numbing doom of obsession, and even the intricate, now-forgotten details of whaling vessels and their beautiful quirks and subtle evils) come pouring out of his soul in such rapture and depth that they can’t help but infect my heart and spirit with his. Second, this book is long as hell. Of course it would define an era of my life, it’s Moby freaking Dick.

But Moby Dick is also one of the most fun books I have ever read, and I am absolutely certain that when I inevitably return to it through the course of my life, that it will have in no way lost any of its potency. This is a LIVING BOOK, and has filled me with a zeal for life in the way only very special people and very special art can. God I want to hug Herman Melville and tell him that his book wasn’t a failure, like all the critics and reading public thought it was. Fortunately for me, reading Moby Dick actually does feel like getting hugged by Herman Melville in a way that you’ll understand once you’ve read it. And what a kind, warm hugger that bearded 1850’s man is. 10/10, an emotional masterpiece. ...more "

progress:

(page 196 of 625)
— Jan 29, 2026 10:10AM

Sep 12, 2025 08:13AM · see review

Denson’s Quotes

“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”
― Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

tags: music, the-merchant-of-venice

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“A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,
A miser filling his most hoarded chest,
Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping
As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping.

For there it lies so tranquil, so beloved,
All that it hath of life with us is living;
So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved,
And all unconscious of the joy 't is giving;
All it hath felt, inflicted, pass'd, and proved,
Hush'd into depths beyond the watcher's diving:
There lies the thing we love with all its errors
And all its charms, like death without its terrors.”
― Lord Byron, Don Juan

3 likes