I discovered there was a free audio version of Moby Dick online, as a podcast, so I started listening to it. However, 3/4s through it, the site went down. So I resumed with an audio book from the library.
I think listening to it was a mistake. I distracted myself too many times and missed a lot of stuff over the course of the months I listened to it. I think I will have to read the novel. The good news is that now I am committed to reading it at some point.
What I did get from it is that it is an immense, dense and textured work (which is why I want to read it and felt like listening to it was not enough). And I can understand why it is now considered a landmark in American literature.