No. 314 - Pequod

I received an e-mail in the last week from my favorite local bookstore listing upcoming events. In it I read the following: The Classics Book Group meets the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm. The group will not meet in December, but copies of Moby Dick, the January book will be in stock shortly.

On January 1st of each year I sit down and write goals for myself for the year. My wife does the same, as do our kids. One of my goals for this year was this blog, to learn something new every day and post about it. Another goal was to read Moby-Dick, which I have been meaning to do for years and just haven't got around to it. It is also one of my daughter's goals (and yes, I dragged her into it with me) although we got her a condensed version of the novel. With only about 7 weeks left in the year, I suppose we should start reading it soon.

I was researching the novel today on Wikipedia and other sites and learned that the Pequod, the fictional 19th century whaling ship featured in Moby-Dick, was named after the Pequot Indian tribe. The Pequot (pronounced PEE-kwott) Indians inhabited much of what is now Connecticut.

I also found a reference to a book called Where the Great Hawk Flies by Liza Ketchum, which is a novel for young adults about a half-Pequot boy living in the 18th century. The connection to Indians caught my attention because my daughter told me at dinner last night that they were learning about Indians in school along with Pilgrims in conjunction with learning about the Thanksgiving holiday later this month. 

I think I shall mention this Pequot book to her. But only after she reads Moby-Dick ;)