The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella by classic writer Ernest Hemingway. It tells the story of an old man and his attempt to catch a giant fish. The old man's name is Santiago, but that's not important.

An elderly fisherman is unlucky—he hasn't caught a good fish in a great long time. The townsfolk know he's unlucky, and so do the parents of the boy who used to be his assistant. Hence the words "used to." Now, old Santiago struggles to get by, though he goes out to sea every single day to hope against hope that a fish will bite.

One day, a fish bites his bait. He's finally caught something, eh? But this fish is so large that he can't haul it in. Instead, the great fish swims off with the bait in its mouth, dragging the boat and the old man with it. Hour after hour goes by, and the old man can do nothing but wait for the opportune moment to kill the great fish and haul it back, strapped to the side of the boat if necessary. But the question is... will that ever-so-persistent fish give in and die, or will the old man die first, from lack of supplies and no way to escape the vast sea?

The Old Man and the Sea is a fairly good book. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely worth a read. The story is sad, but few good stories aren't at some point. I probably wouldn't have ever read this in my own time (it was a school assignment), but it's definitely worth a shot. A reader might get bored from how much time Hemingway spends describing the process of fishing in Cuba, but at least this novella's got nothing on Moby Dick in that matter.

If you need something to read, check it out. It's not worthy of cutting the line on your reading list, but it's good nonetheless.