Reading has always been one of the great joys of my life. As a youngster of about 10, I recall my father introducing me to `The Complete Sherlock Holmes,' a hardback edition from the early 1900's which had at one time been in the possession of my Uncle Jack. Over the next several years, I read the entire volume of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great fictional detective, Holmes, and was riveted by the suspense, mystery, and action-packed stories of Holmes and faithful companion Dr. John Watson.
I was always a sports fan. My dad was a high school coach and passed his love of sports to me. I grew up in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. and my father and I would attend Washington Senators baseball games at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. We were all heart-broken when the Senators left town following the 1971 season and became the Texas Rangers. Washington would not see major league baseball again until 2005. In the meantime, with the Senators gone, I needed a new team to cheer on. A business trip took my dad to Boston one year (maybe 1973) and he brought me back a biography about the great Boston Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski. I got around to reading it about a year later and, for better or worse, became a lifetime Red Sox fan with Yastrzemski as my new hero.
I grew up a Washington Redskins fan, the team now known as the Commanders. My father bought a book about Vince Lombardi's one season - 1969 - as head coach of the old Redskins. Lombardi, whom the Super Bowl trophy is named, had created a football dynasty in Green Bay and, following a year off of coaching, was hired to coach the Redskins. For the first time in decades, Washington had a winning team (7-5-1) under Lombardi. The book my dad had bought, `Coach', by author Tom Dowling, would eventually become part of my reading collection. It was the story of that fabled '69 season.
Perhaps the greatest sports book I ever read was another one handed down from my dad - `Instant Replay,' by former Green Bay Packers great Jerry Kramer, who wrote, in diary form, the story of the Packers' 1967 season in which they went on to win an unprecedented third straight world championship (Super Bowl II) in Lombardi's final season in Green Bay.
Over the years, numerous reading genres have captured my fancy. Some of my favorites have been biographies about President John F. Kennedy; horror novels by Stephen King (`Salem's Lot' being my favorite), Bram Stoker (Dracula), and Mary Shelley's `Frankenstein'; true crime drama (the horrifying bestseller, `In Cold Blood,' by Truman Capote); world wide classics geared more for teenage boys like Robert Louis Stevenson's `Treasure Island,' Jack Schaefer's `Shane,' and Franklin W. Dixon's `Hardy Boys' series. Other readings I have enjoyed among the classics have included Agatha Christie mysteries, Ray Bradbury science fiction, and old time detective stories such as Dashiell Hammett's `The Maltese Falcon.' (Agatha Christie's books are second best selling ever, second to the Bible, which happens to be my all-time favorite choice of reading).
My current readings - I like reading several books, jumping back and forth depending on my mood - include John Grisham's `The Firm'; George Plimpton's old football bestseller `Paper Lion'; a biography on former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; and, of all things, a biography on the enigmatic actor Marlon Brando (of `God Father' fame). Also, I get around to reading a history of the University of Maryland Football program; a sequel to Stevenson's `Treasure Island,' and others.
Like I said, I love reading.
Famous western writer Louis L'amour once said the following: `For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.' In my 11th grade English classes at Grants High, I try to encourage students to take on classic books, older novels which have passed the test of time, such as writings by Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack London. My students write occasional book reports and receive extra credit for reading a classic. If they prefer more contemporary books that suit their interest, I am OK with that. The bottom line: I just want them to give reading a chance and learn to love it. That's not easy because many young people do not necessarily enjoy reading - they have many other forms of entertainment, most of it technological! I encourage them to listen to audible books. Reading levels are down across the country and for many, perhaps listening to great literature is a viable alternative. Another option I give students is to read about something they're passionate about, like maybe dance, auto mechanics, or war history. By reading books of their interests, maybe reading of those subject matters will spur them on to a lifetime of reading.
I will close with a quote by Louise Erdrich, a renowned writer and part of the Native American Literary Renaissance of the late 1960's. She wrote: “Books are life. We have a lot of books in our house. They are our primary decorative books in piles and on the coffee table, framed book covers, books sorted into stacks on every available surface, and of course books on shelves along most walls. I can't imagine a home without an overflow of books. The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough, or the right one at the right moment. But then, all at once, there it is. The book you want.”
For me, there is always a book I want to read!