Have you ever wanted to read Moby Dick, but were too intimidated? Or is the novel a treasured favorite and you’re ready for a re-read? All are welcome for a fun discussion of the American classic on White Whale Wednesdays!  To celebrate Herman Melville’s 200th birthday, HAF, Discover Albany, and the New York State Writers Institute are hosting a Moby Dick Book Club, where we commit to completing the novel over a period of six months. We’ll chat for an hour with a Melville enthusiast over a pint, and then enjoy a Melville/Moby Dick centered program. Don’t have time for both? Feel free to come to just one part of the evening. The stalwart souls who do it all will receive a fun prize to commemorate their accomplishment.

The book club will be broken down into 100 pages per meetings (most editions are around 600 pages) so please read the relevant pages before the club each month.

$5 HAF Members/ $10 General Public (per night)

For our first meeting, attendees should have red at least the first 100 pages of the book. This first session on Wednesday, April 10th will be led by Pamela Howard, Executive Director at Historic Albany Foundation and Maeve McEneny Johnson from Discover Albany.

The "show and tell" second hour will feature local Moby Dick book collectorBill Pettit III whose collection includes 246 different versions in 12 languages. Bill will share his love of this book, and the ow and why he collects.