What I’m Reading – Jack London’s Call of the Wild!

Most people read “Jack London’s Call of the Wild” in Grade School.

Not me.

Nope. I was too cool and looking too much into the future to bother with anything that happened in the frozen mountains of Alaska. I was a bit of a snob as a kid and if it didn’t have a spaceship in it, I just wasn’t interested.

So, a great work of American literature went dusty on my shelf and was eventually passed to a thrift store.

Years go by. And interestingly, it was Science-Fiction that sparked my interest in reading the book.

In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Time’s Arrow, Data is time warped into1893 San Francisco where he encounters a young Jack London working in a hotel. I liked the episode and while watching it I realized I’d read only “To Build a Fire” by london.

So, I read Call of the Wild.

You know what?

I cheated myself by not reading it years ago.

London is very economical in the use of his words, yet he puts right in the middle of things. He transports us into the life of an animal forced to adapt to a land it didn’t grow up in. he shows relationships, battles to survive, and the relationship Buck (that’s the dog’s name) has with humans. Not all those relationships are good.

So, if you’re never read the book, do so.

It’s a lot more than a simple adventure story.