Gulliver's Travels

This is a complex and bizarre book, almost annoying in places at how outlandish and ridiculous it is.

Gulliver's Travels is definitely for adults because of how dour, technical and political it comes across at the aloof upper echelons of society, and what seems like fun reading at first, often bogs down into justifications and pomposity as it trawls along.

Gulliver himself goes from being very small to very big, even putting out a fire by urinating over a castle!

There's a very interesting section in chapter three about immortality and the impracticality of it, and chapter four is heartening with its endearing Houyhnhnms and despicable Yahoos.

This is a very dense, profound and captivating tale in places.

Even though it's sometimes turgid and old-fashioned read in places, I still have a soft spot for how daft, silly and stuffy this book is, with enough interesting concepts to tune into the author's nutty idea of otherworldly madness, floating cities, giants, midgets, intelligent horses and evil human beings.

This isn't as epic as Moby Dick because it's split into four separate books, but it's still mammoth through its monstrous determination to get an abstract message across no matter what.