The Reading Challenge
The subplot in Denzel Washington’s 2014 movie “The Equalizer” that helps define his character has him reading “the 100 books his deceased wife said everyone should read.”
Space here doesn’t permit 100, but how about my top 12?
When my family moved from Long Beach to the Orange County suburbs midway through my third-grade year, I got my first library card at the Buena Park Library. My new friends and classmates on the block all went to the library together whenever someone’s parents would car-pool us into town.
My best friend, Jim, challenged us every summer through junior high school to see who could read the most books. He was really smart and usually won. It inspired us to read more, if just to try to beat him. I think my love of books came from his reading challenge.
Dog stories were my favorite. My mom would take my sister and me back to Long Beach to a used bookstore she loved, the World of Books. It was like a small world, similar to Tin Can Mailman in Arcata, only 10 times bigger. I found a vintage copy of “Call of the Wild” by Jack London there. It sits on my bookshelf still. Titles by Kjelgaard, Meek, O’Brian, Gipson, among others, were some of my favorites.
Jim read science fiction. At his urging, I started reading the “Lucky Star” series by Paul French (Isaac Asimov’s pen name), and eventually took on his complex “Foundation” trilogy, too.
My top-12 list is:
• “Call of the Wild” (1903) made me want to go to Alaska and mine for gold and led me to read all of London’s books.
• “Last of the Mohicans” (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper still holds up today.
• “Return of the Native” (1878) a Thomas Hardy classic. I could smell the red dirt and the heather.
• “Watership Down” (1972) — Richard Adams signed my copy when he visited the Humboldt State bookstore in the early ’80s.
• “Night Crossings” (1986) by local musician and author Jon Humboldt Gates.
• “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (1954-1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien. Need I say more?
• “Riders of the Purple Sage” (1912) by Zane Grey.
• The “Dune” series (1965-1985) — Frank Herbert’s classic.
• “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” (1970) by Richard Bach.
• “Walden” (1854) by Henry David Thoreau.
• “A Girl of the Limberlost” (1909) by Gene Stratton-Porter (fascinating back-story about the author).
• “Green Dolphin Street” (1945) by Elizabeth Goudge (my father’s favorite). And anything by John Connelly, John Grisham, Jeffery Deavers, Louis L’Amour …
Rich Jordan tries to find time to read in Arcata.
