The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.
In 1974, I read a book that would change my life forever.
Over the past few months, I developed a new habit of reading. My Grandma, on my dad’s side, stayed with us for about a month. Every night she would read the Reader’s Digest, and I decided to do the same. She slept on the spare bed in my bedroom so each night we would read until she would shut the lights out.
I found out later that she stayed with us because one night she went out drinking and, on the way home hit a parked car in her 1965 Mustang. She panicked and drove all the way from West Los Angeles to our house in Orange County to lay low while my dad had her car fixed. We never told anybody. I suppose the statute of limitations has long since passed. As has my Grandma.
At any rate, Grandma had a few of those Reader’s Digest abridged versions of books. I took it with me on the school bus the next day and begin reading their version of the novel Jaws. The moment I read the opening line which you read above; I was absolutely hooked. I couldn’t believe somebody could write a book that was so compelling that I was actually scared. And yet I couldn’t stop reading.
A year later or so, I managed to get my hands on the actual novel, which was much bigger, had a lot more detail, was far more graphic, and had subjects that were way above my 10-year-old, maturity level. It didn’t matter though. I read that book over and over and over.
In 1975 when the movie was made, I remember being thoroughly disappointed with it. Every single one of the characters in the book look different on the screen. The storyline was similar but didn’t have the depth of the book. Even still, the movie grew on me.
And about that time, I begin to think about writing books myself. I wanted to be able to create a story that would make people feel like they were there in the action. While my overall grades in school weren’t very good, every writing assignment I did was perfect. That continued all the way through middle school and later into high school. A few years after I graduated and was already on active duty in the Navy, I came home on leave and was helping my dad clean out some junk in the attic. I opened a box of my high school papers that I had written. I couldn’t believe I wrote these. They were amazing. At the time I was languishing in the first few years of my Navy career, totally unmotivated. At that moment, I realized I was wasting my brain and wasting my talent. When I got back from leave, I signed up for a writing class with the University of Maryland. I got an A. The professor would read my work to the class before anybody else.
When I got back from leave, I signed up for a writing class with the University of Maryland. I got an A. The professor would read my work to the class before anybody else. I started writing articles for the Base newspaper. I had finally found one of my talents.
If you’re reading this today, it’s because I fell in love with reading, then writing at a young age. Yeah, it probably could’ve been a better book than Jaws, but either way, it’s the one that got me started. I’ve written multiple books over the years plus a weekly blog I’ve done since 2008. For a time I wrote a monthly career article for Men’s Fitness Magazine (CAREER ARTICLES!!!! OBVIOUSLY I WOULD NOT BE WRITING ABOUT FITNESS!!!). Writing now is like breathing. It’s just part of who I am.
A few years ago, I listened to the audio version of Jaws. With my now adult ears, I realized what a well-written book it was, and I picked up things now as an adult that I did not as a kid.
Which book absolutely changed your life when you read it? How is it impacting you today?
What would happen if you wrote a book that changed somebody’s life?
