If you're looking for something shorter and more readable about whaling, I'd recommend In the Heart of the Sea. The (nonfiction) story told there was used by Me

If you're looking for something shorter and more readable about whaling, I'd recommend In the Heart of the Sea. The (nonfiction) story told there was used by Melville as inspiration for Moby Dick. Unlike Moby Dick, that was a book I could not put down, but my brain is also the size of a peanut.