100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library

[sun surfer]

Thanks for this thread; I'm always interested in lists of greatest books.

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I question the idea of this list being a measure of my manliness anyway. Especially when I think about the likelihood that Issybird probably has read more of the books on the list then I have.

I'm sure she's read more than me, and if there were an Essential Woman's Library, I probably would've read more (possibly many more) on that list than this list. I counted and I've read 16 of these, a few others I've read partially (like I've read Dante's Inferno but not the other parts) and some others are on my TBR list.

But all in all the list was interesting and as I read it I started feeling that familiar twinge of yearning, becoming interested in many of the ones I haven't read and just wanting to immediately read them all. I tend to do that with any halfway decent lists.

ETA - My main criticism with this list would be that it's very U.S.-centric, which is fine except that it's not noted as such. It should be the Essential U.S. Man's Library or some such.

[ametzler]

Originally Posted by BenG

From The Art of Manliness website.
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14...-mans-library/
[...]

I found the selection a little bit narrow: 4x John Steinbeck, 2x
Kurt Vonnegut, 2x Ernest Hemingway, etc.

[caleb72]

Just for the hell of it. I thought I'd give my "scorecard".

The Great Gatsby **
Slaughter-house Five
1984
The Brothers Karamazov **
The Picture of Dorian Gray **
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Call of the Wild
Lord of the Flies
The Master and Margarita
The Metamorphosis
Crime and Punishment
The Hobbit
Animal Farm
A Separate Peace
The Stranger
The Island of Doctor Moreau
To Kill a Mockingbird

The ones with ** are on my agenda in the next year.

Hmmm - looks like I'm not quite manly enough.

There were quite a few books on that list that I do intend to read some day though. I'm interested in reading more Steinback and Hemmingway for example.

[Tattncat]

Okay, where's the essential Woman's library of must reads, although I have read some of these listed. I am curious what would constitute the essential Woman's 100 must read library.

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by Tattncat

Okay, where's the essential Woman's library of must reads, although I have read some of these listed. I am curious what would constitute the essential Woman's 100 must read library.

Here is one such list, although you have to click on each one, very annoying:

http://www.more.com/entertainment/bo...art-i-classics

I would just make sure that The Handmaid's Tale is on there! (I don't know if it is or not.)

The other lists I saw were the top 100 books BY women. Out of curiosity, did the manly list have any books by women on it?

eP

[Katie1]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'll admit I was nervous going in, but judging by the large percentage of the books from the list that I've read... I'm happy to report that I am, apparently, quite manly after all. What a relief!

My sons read most on the list also... guess this makes him a man or at leats Male

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

The other lists I saw were the top 100 books BY women. Out of curiosity, did the manly list have any books by women on it?

Frankenstein, Atlas Shrugged and To Kill a Mockingbird, at the very least. I only took a cursory look so there may have been a few more.

I've read a few on the list, but not enough to qualify as a man. Which is probably a good thing, as I'm fairly okay with having born into a female body.

[MikeOxlittle]

No books on how to grill, smoke and BBQ various meats?

No books on how to mix a proper martini?

No books on survival and foraging techiques?

No books on proper massage techniques? Kama Sutra?

That list is a sham ... only reinforced doubly when they listed The Bible.

I know a lot of people dislike Adam Carolla but he wrote a pretty funny book a while back that I think a lot of 'men' nowadays should read. He might have an annoying way of making a point but the points usually hold true.

[Quake1028]

I've read a depressingly low number of those books. A lot of them are on my TBR though .

[orlok]

I promised myself I wouldn't get drawn into this, but...I've read the following:

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
The Naked and The Dead by Norman Mailer
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly
Hamlet by Shakespeare
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarq
The Bible (parts of)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

A third of the list, which is probably not too bad for a non-American. Can I claim honourary Manliness status?

[BenG]

Originally Posted by orlok

Can I claim honourary Manliness status?

Of course!
You will receive one of these in the mail.

[bloodlover]

You are not a real man unless you read THE BIBLE Lot giving away his daughters is a great example of how every real man in the 21st century should act