Call of the Wild

by Jack London

I had been planning on writing a post about the fact that I'm surprised by how bad most classic books are.  But I quite liked Call of the Wild.

The story is about a domestic dog that is stolen from his owner and then is taken into Canada to pull dog sleds during the Klondike gold rush (1886-89).

The book is written through the dog's perspective, and although people are often involved in the story it is the thoughts of "Buck" that are the main focus.  The dog is known as "Buck" throughout the book, but not once does a person refer to him by name.

The book has the same flaws that I discovered in Lord of the Rings (lack of setting, character descriptions), but I completely overlooked that flaw in this book.

I really liked the book.  I think that (around) 10 year old boys, in particular, should be reading this book.