Most people have never read it. But they know the story. I have reread it a bunch of times. Almost every year the past decade. It’s not my favorite book, but I always get something from it.

More on my rereading next weekend on the Weekends in Paradelle blog, but for today…

You can read the book cover-to-cover this weekend with a few hundred Melville fans if you are in New Bedford, Massachussets where the author shipped out on the whale ship Acushnet in January 1841.

Here’s what going on…

New Bedford Whaling Museum’s 16th Annual Moby-Dick Marathon Weekend:

Last night was a public lecture, “Moby-Dick in American Popular Culture,” with Dr. Timothy Marr, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Saturday, January 7
10:00 a.m.: Stump the Scholars quiz program.
11:30 a.m.: Moby-Dick “Extracts,” Melville Society, Bourne Bldg.
12:00 noon: Moby-Dick Marathon begins, Bourne Bldg.
1:30 p.m.: Chapters 7– 9 in the Seamen’s Bethel with tenor Jonathan Boyd.
2:30 p.m.: Marathon continues, Jacobs Family Gallery.
3:00-5:00 p.m.: Chat with a Melville scholar, Wattles Family Gallery.
3:00-5:00 p.m.: “Imaging Moby!” exhibit tour with Dr. Robert Wallace, Northern Kentucky University
7:00 p.m.: Chapter 40, “Midnight, Forecastle” performed by Culture*Park, Cook Theater.
8:00 p.m.: Marathon continues through the night, Jacobs Family Gallery.

Sunday, January 8
1:00 p.m.: Marathon concludes with the Epilogue.

Free Admission
Live-streaming www.whalingmuseum.org
Tweet #MDM16