Join us every Friday in July and August and learn about the Decoda staff’s summer reading picks. Today Sandra Lee, Executive Director, is sharing her summer reading pick.

It is a standard September question for many work teams: “What did you do this summer?” I hope your response is about books, rest, connection and fun. Years ago, a colleague shared his summer highlight was reading Moby-Dick. This interesting challenge for summer readers is what I decided to take on in 2024. And I now share that challenge with others!

While I am not a fan of classic fiction (typically you would find me in the realistic fiction aisle and the quirkier, the better), Moby-Dick does offer some quirkiness in the interplay of narrative and essay-style chapters. Also, the well-known plot of Ishmael and his journey is full of layers of interpretation. The true agenda for Captain Ahab’s mission is to find and kill the massive whale who caused him injury—and the crew was only prepared for an uneventful sailing to the tropics. Of course, the journey is difficult and ultimately everyone dies except Ishmael.

The 539-ish page novel by Herman Melville is considered one of the great American novels, despite having been unpopular at the time of publishing. There are many fun facts online about this novel helping with the appeal of reading commitment.

Other classic fiction reads can be found on multiple lists, if you want to include shorter easy-to-read classic fiction titles there is a great list for that too. If you enjoy dense classical text and the idea of collecting reading experiences, I challenge you to read Moby-Dick this summer.