Tried but failed to read it 30 years ago, in my 20s. Read it recently, found it both absorbing and frequently very (dryly) funny, must be an age thing. But the alleged American political allegory was lost on me.
I was much the same - as a teenager I could only manage to get thru' the "Classic" comic version /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif, but many years later enjoyed the book.
If you liked Moby Dick then, if not read already, you most likely would also enjoy The Cruise of the Cachelot by Frank T. Bullen. Is autobiographical late 19C and seems to run true to fact (part of it is set in my home country and that part is sensible) - is available second hand and is free as ebook on www.gutenburg.org (amongst others).
Only because it is written in a somewhat similar vein to Moby Dick and has some similarity in setting might I suggest Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'.
Actually don't think I have read any Poe since at school (many moons ago). Will try to read it when I am not hungry /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.