I feel the need: the need to read.

The 1986 hit “Top Gun” has managed to cruise into cult classic status and even spawn a recent sequel.

This Saturday, Nov. 12, at Newport Public Library, Meredith Jordan will offer a glimpse behind the scenes of this modern classic with a talk on her book “Top Gun Memos: The Making and Legacy of an Iconic Movie.”

The book was released early this year and uses more than 1,250 studio and production documents, hundreds of news articles and 90 interviews to tell the story of the high-flying blockbuster. It is filled with anecdotes about the fun times filmmakers had while making the movie without shying away from telling the full story, which includes production plights and serious off-screen danger.

Included throughout are interviews with retired Navy personnel whose experiences shaped the entire movie.

The book looks at why “Top Gun” has outlived so many other excellent movies and also tackles what happened to revered director Tony Scott, who took his own life just two days after returning from a scouting trip for the "Top Gun: Maverick" sequel with Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer in 2012.

Meredith Jordan is an award-winning journalist who spent 25 years working for East Coast news organizations, including National Geographic and Dow Jones & Co. She likes to say she is a “cog-in-the-wheel journalist,” because she is just as proud of having worked for local news organizations that don’t have the same name recognition.

In addition to “Top Gun Memos,” Jordan is the author of “Below the Line: Anatomy of a Successful Movie.”

She has lived on the Oregon Coast since 2021.

The talk begins at 1 pm in the McEntee Meeting Room of Newport Public Library, located at 35 NW Nye Street. For more information, go to newportlibrary.org or call 541-265-2153.