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There are more “Great Books” lists than there are living people, I suspect. Some are pretty good as they capture a list of books that would appear on the lists of many people.
Then there’s this list from the Art of Manliness website.
There are three four books about Theodore Roosevelt on the list. There are two books by Jack Kerouac. More by Hemmingway. The list is a touch tedious to read and if you followed it, you’d miss so many better examples of “manly” books that it would be tragic. (Where’s the frickin’ Cormac McCarthy on a list of “manly” books?)
And Ulysses is on it…the long and really difficult one to read…not the ancient one written in Greek.
How does reading that make you manly? Because you say you made it through to the end?
Also: Does the internet based intersection of GQ and Popular Mechanics think that their visitors are going to bop from a post titled How to Properly Rock a Pocket Square is going to get up and say “Hey! I haven’t read anything mind bendingly difficult this week! I’ll read Ulysses!”
Anyhow. I’m grumpy. Can you tell?
No. Wait. Here’s my idea for a new list.
The 100 Most Difficult Yet Worthwhile Books
I’m going to have to think about that one. Feel free to email me your suggested titles or post them in comments. My only restriction for the list: no textbooks.
5 Comments
Book of Memories by Peter Nadas
Originally written in Hungarian, the sentences go on for pages at a time, and the boundaries get pretty hazy between the story and the story-within-the-story.
Nonetheless, well worth reading.
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas Hofstadter
Trainspotting
by Irvine Welsh
The Canterbury Tales (not technically a book, but nonetheless)
by Geoffrey Chaucer
…would be three I would put on the list.
Maybe it’s should be called “What books to have on your shelf to appear manly” than “What books to read to be manly.”
I think the most manly bookshelf is one filled with books that actually interest the man.
And the books I just can’t get through. Ayn Rand. I just can’t do it. Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead.
The Birth of Pleasure by Carol Gilligan
This book is more of a psychological journey than a telling. It leads through the cultural stories that tell us how to relate to one another and their effect on our lives.
All great additions to a list of difficult-yet-worthwhile books.
I’m trying to decide if the Bible belongs on a list like this, mainly from the “difficulty” standpoint. Is it difficult to read the Bible?
Potentially archaic language (depending upon the translation) could suggest “yes”…but if you get a translation that’s more modern, is it difficult or just time consuming to read it cover-to-cover?
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