I started reading Moby Dick at the same time, and started to get into it, but ultimately found it too long and the language unfamiliar. (Hey—I was 13 and it was both the longest and oldest novel I had yet attempted.) Several years later I found my girlfriend's copy on her shelf when I was visiting, and though I wouldn't have had time to read the whole book in a single overnight visit, I at least found the first few chapters a little easier going. Seven or eight years makes a difference. It's on my reading list for the near future, as is Democracy in America.
Les Misérables I am currently reading and am presently about 200 pages from the end (Jean Valjean just set Javert free at the barricade). It is now the longest novel I have ever read, being approximately as long as the Old Testament.
As for the rest, apart from A Tale of Two Cities, I have no interest.
“found...the language unfamiliar.”
This was the problem I had with Arthur Conan Doyle’s lesser-known-to-us-but-more-famous-in-his-lifetime book “The White Company”.
It is a meticulously researched story about the 30 years war (I think, too lazy to look it up right now) and some fine fellows who go to fight in it.
It’s all taking place a very long, long time ago and the dialogue brilliantly reflects that. It really is brilliant, because you can understand every word, even though it is all very archaic. But I found it exhausting to read.
I’d like to try it again someday, but I’m thinking I might wait to read it to my grandson, it’s really a boy’s story.