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

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-libr...
So I came across this list yesterday and was wondering what people's thoughts on it were. Sadly, I seem to have only read 8 of the books on the list.

I've read 30 1/2 ( the half being the Bible).

It's not a bad list, as suggestions for reading go, but I don't really believe in being told what to read, or see, or do.

>2 housefulofpaper:
I counted the Bible as 1, because I would at least have read most of it, even if I haven't read it from cover to cover.
There are quite a few on the list that are already on my to-read list (some owned, some not yet), but there are also others I've never heard of before.

And I'd certainly never thought of something like the First Edition of the Boy Scout handbook as a must-read book. I do wonder if the first edition of the Boys' Brigade handbook would be similar, as that's what I grew up going to (it actually pre-dates the Boy Scouts by 25 years), but the current handbook doesn't have much of interest in it.

Generally a nice list, but a bit skewed towards modern American interests I think. A lot of what I would consider marginal North American fiction makes it into his top 100. (Not that they aren't worth reading, but they've displaced other works from the list.) FOUR books about Theodore Roosevelt?

It is also heavily skewed towards the 20th Century, and notably lacking Plato's Symposium, Virgil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Voltaire's Candide. I could go on.

Lots of modern novels but light-on in histories and philosophy.

How do Dale Carnegie, Tarzan, "The American Boys Handy Book", and "The Dangerous Book for Boys" sit in a list with Homer and Hemingway?

It's not the list I would come up with. Nonetheless, there are many fine works there.

Four books about Roosevelts? Three about surviving (or not surviving) on a deserted island? A book about rounders in Brooklyn? Only one (I think) book by a woman? Hmm.

Love the cover for Brave New World though. That's the way to market literary fiction.

I came across that list a while ago, and it definitely gave me a healthy list of additions to my "too read" pile, even though I am (gasp) not a man.

The entire website is, in my opinion, a bit tongue-in-cheek. A fun attempt to a throwback when men were men, had mustaches, and adored Teddy Roosevelt. Therefore, the list is less of an attempt to be truly well-read in any kind of academic or worldly sense, and more so books one should read in order to prove how manly (in an American sense of the word) one is.

A quick note to those reading the list - I consider it to contain spoilers in the descriptions, if one can spoil books that so many people have read/talked about, so don't read the captions if you are at all concerned.

>6 phoenixmemnon:
"only one (I think) book by a woman"
Well it is on a site called "the art of manliness" :P
Two? Frankenstein and Atlas Shrugged.

>8 johni92:

Also, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry.

What is "manliness"?

I just so happen to be reading this article on their site right now.
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/05/16/what-is-manliness/

47 for me, but those philosphy books will keep me from reading the whole list. Kierkegaard! Not for me, I confess.

Oh dear. This list is much too uniformly austere for me. At least the compilers know what they like and are sticking to it. Only two books written by women? As if men who read women's books aren't manly...or something.

Also...no War and Peace? I think this is the first time in my life I've seen any "100 books" list that didn't include it.

30 here, but at a rough guess that's 90% of the listed works from before the 20th century and 10% of those from within it.

> 13 "At least the compilers know what they like and are sticking to it. "

That seems to be the principle. Personally, I don't think I'll be reading THREE books by or about Teddy Roosevelt.

Not a bad list for starters (after all, it includes Don Quixote). However, with so many books on survival and other "manly" pursuits, I'm afraid I only tally 32.

40 for me, a few more I plan to read, but nothing new for the to read list. In fact quite a few I would never read!

I think the BBC's Radio 4 has got hold of this list. On Saturday it filleted Ulysses for Bloomsday and next Saturday afternoon (2.30 BST) it's the turn of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

16 for me, and another 20 on my shelves waiting to be read. Any list that has both The Swiss Family Robinson and Lonesome Dove on it has to be good! :)