Ken Dryden shares 6 books that have inspired him throughout his life
His latest book, The Class, follows the trajectories of the 35 members of his high school grade
From NHL goalie to lawyer and politician, Ken Dryden has lived a vastly varied life — and he's written about some of it in his many books. His books include Game Change, Scotty, The Series and The Game.
The Game is considered one of the greatest sports books of all time and it was championed by actor Alan Thicke on Canada Reads 2012.
In his most recent title, The Class, he reconnects with the members of his high school grade at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute to find out how they ended up where they did, painting a picture of postwar Canada.
"There were only a couple of people who were friends in high school who remain friends," he told CBC Books in a recent interview. Most of the interactions he'd had with his classmates before this book were random, he said.
"You were kind of discovering the rest of the life of that person in the conversations, but in many ways you were also then really discovering them during those years as well, even though you thought you knew them then."
Dryden was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s, during which time the team won six Stanley Cups. He has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
Following the release of The Class, Dryden spoke with CBC Books about the titles that have stuck with him over the years.
Reach for the Sky by Paul Brickhill
"I was a busy kid. I loved to do things and not just sports, just anything that was happening. I thought that reading was just so slow. I mean, it was just ponderous. It didn't suit my metabolism. I wanted to be going and doing and sitting down and reading a book just took forever.
"Probably the first non-sports book I read was a book called Reach for the Sky by Paul Brickhill. It's the story of a World War II English flying ace named Douglas Bader who, early in the war, crashed and lost both his legs. He was therefore unfit for flying, but that didn't stop him. And so he came back and he flew through the rest of the war. And I thought that was just a great story."
Dispatches by Michael Herr
"My real opportunity to start reading things that I was interested in rather than assigned was when I was playing hockey because you're on the road at times; you're in airplanes, you're on buses and what else are you going to do. So that's when I really started reading and I loved it. The first of the books that I remember being really affected by was a book called Dispatches by Michael Herr.
He wrote it in a way that was real to me for the first time; I never had understood war remotely like that until Michael Herr's book.- Ken Dryden
"He was a writer for Esquire magazine. But his book was about Vietnam. And it was the first book that I had ever read about war from the fighting soldiers' perspective.
He would have been in the equivalent of the trenches and just up close to battle and next to people who were who were killed or severely injured. Right in the absolute midst of it. He wrote it in a way that was real to me for the first time. I had never understood war remotely like that until Michael Herr's book."
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
"I love to try to understand how things are. Things are as they are for reasons, and so what are those reasons? How did this happen and how could that possibly have happened? And the next thing. And the next thing.
"It was just so incredible and fascinating for me to read somebody who is connecting all of those pieces — all of the things that are part of our lives — and understanding the path that was taken in order to get here."
A Short History of Almost Everything by Bill Bryson
"He's a terrific writer. His story is from the time of The Big Bang to here and the impossible journey of the atoms that were created at that particular moment and the atoms that still exist. They exist in you. They exist in me. They exist in everything around us that have moved these billions of years, colliding with each other, connecting in various different ways, disconnecting, breaking apart somehow, all of these accidents, resulting in everything that is around us. It's a fantastic book."
The Silk Roads by by Peter Frankopan
"What's the significance of a Silk Road? I mean, that's a nice phrase for something, but what does it all mean? And so you have these settlements, these civilizations in China and the movement that happens. And what happens when movement happens?
"And not only are you physically moving along this road, but you are moving everything about you along this road. You are moving the objects that you have created. You are moving the learning that you have done in order to create those objects. They're moving with you. You're moving the language that you have created with you. You're moving the religion and other philosophies that are a part of your being and of your culture. You're moving all of these things with you as you move. And it's like, 'Oh wow, finally, I sort of understand a little bit about what the Silk Road is and the impact of that.'"
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
"I like all of Steven Pinker's books, but that one I like better than the others even. He's a very good writer and he's an incredible researcher and he's writing about things that can't possibly be true. And the only way in which you know they are, is that they've happened. They've come to be.
"This particular book is really kind of the history of violence. And of course we know, in our lives now, how violence just gets worse and worse and worse. And the wars that are fought and the weapons that we have and the violence in our streets and in our cities. And how that has become a more and more dangerous world — and that much more difficult to live in because of it.
"And what Steven Pinker does is that he goes through history and of course he discovers that this a much less violent world than it once was. And so the question becomes, how did it become less violent and why do we think it's more violent? It's a terrific book."
Ken Dryden's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
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