Score

May I nominate The Quiet American by Graham Greene?

This is actually a static list that I am (slowly) adding. It can be viewed at the link above. I thought in general the selection was good and I picked a lot from it so others might enjoy it similarly.

This list is now complete. I have deleted the duplicates and books that don't belong on the list.

PLEASE DO NOT ADD ANY OTHER BOOKS.

You probably need to add that (and I'd suggest bolded) to the list description.

But some people will add books anyway.

If people vote for all of the listed books it would create something of a buffer to new books being added.

Thanks for putting this list up! It's made my life much easier. So glad GoodReads has some AoM readers as well!

Chris wrote: ""The Great Gatsby" is listed twice."

I removed the duplicate.

This is a list of male centric books, mostly from past generations. Very few are relevant to today, and fewer are relevant to women. I'll pick my reading list elsewhere.

Spot on! The list is entitled "The Essential Man's Library" from the popular blog "The Art of Manliness." I strongly disagree with your point that many are not relevant today; in fact most are. For instance, Brave New World was uncannily clairvoyant in its depiction of certain elements of modern social life, while Grapes of Wrath is a very pertinent cautionary tale against the ideals of the more libertarian factions of contemporary politics. Catch-22 is quite salient with respect to the foolhardiness with which we've entered wars in the past decade and the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is eerily similar to some present-day totalitarian regimes. Yet, you are free to read as you wish, so be all means do so.

From my sampling of it, the collection isn't all bad.

I find it quite normative- go on, fight your battle, keep centre, come back to your own and take care of them. Apparently noble, but very judgemental.

Let's grant, for a second, that works of female authorship have no place in a list about "Manliness" (though a list about Manliness without S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders"...). Still, where's Hunter S. Thompson? Where's William S. Burroughs? Where's Ralph Ellison? Capote exploring the depths of distorted man-ego "In Cold Blood"? Ken Kesey? How does Winston Churchill get an entry? The Boy Scouts Handbook??? Where are all the latin-american boom writers denouncing colonialism in style? Where is Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", talking precisely and on-point about "Manliness" and its folly across time and distance? Is it not absurd to have "The Wealth of Nations" up there, but not "Das Kapital"?

Surely there's some arbitrary line drawn over time and geography that explains how coincidentally all these books are written by white dudes, how anything still mildly subversive just didn't make the cut.

Manliness, as defined by what this collection of classics and weird ideological hanger-ons, is stuck in the past.

I do agree with you that that these are all very important subjects that any man worth his salt ought to read up on. It is obvious that this list has a particular slant, however it makes no claim of being the exclusive list of 'manly' books. The list is a collection of one man's ideas of the hundred most essential books on manliness. Personally, I have great experience drawing from many of the works on this list; there are others that I have no interest whatsoever in reading. I think the take away message is to take this list, or any other, with a grain of salt. It is nothing more than one man's opinion. It does nothing to prevent others from creating their own lists in their own vision, as they well should if they believe they have an insight to share.

I understand. I mean, I'm not telling you to take it down. I'm just leaving my comment there for whomever happens to browse down to the comment section, perhaps feeling vaguely uneasy.

After all, that's how I got most of my education.

No Fight Club?

Apparently not.

This seems like a better list, although it has a slight American bias.

Get rid of:
10 Secrets of the New Rich: How To Join The World's New Breed Of Millionaires
by Kevin J. Donaldson
Complicity (The CCCCC Conspirators Code #1)

Heather wrote: "Get rid of:
10 Secrets of the New Rich: How To Join The World's New Breed Of Millionaires
by Kevin J. Donaldson
Complicity (The CCCCC Conspirators Code #1)"

Seconded.

Done.

I know everyone has their own tastes, but I'll never complete this list.

I will never read Slaughterhouse - Five, Catch-22, A Brave New World, A catcher in the Rye, or Atlas Shrugged. They just don't appeal to me and I don't think I'd finish any of them.

I will never read another Dostoyevsky or Steinbeck novel; once each was painful enough for me.

I had to read excerpts of Walden in high school and all I could think of Thoreau was he certainly could whine.

Awaken Your Alpha is a book that belongs on this list.

It's being released Oct 3, 2018, but I read an advanced copy. It is the foremost discussion of modern masculinity.

You need to read it and add it to your list.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

This is a "closed" list, Judeanne.

Jaymason wrote: "Thanks for putting this list up! It's made my life much easier. So glad GoodReads has some AoM readers as well!"
ditto.

I think this list is due for an update. There are books on this list that are NOT on their updated list (updated 2023, according to the website).