I really like this top 100 must read list (warning - manly)

[Milhouse]

I've read about 30 or so of them. I'm kind of surprised I hadn't read more, considering I avoided writing classes in highschool and college as much as possible by taking literature classes instead.

A lot of the literature I studied wasn't "Western" though. For example, I have two translations of The Art of War in my bookcase, and I think I've read at least one more translation.

What about Beowulf? Why isn't that on the list?

Also, as much as I like Krakauer. . . two books of his made the list? Really? Come on. How about Simpson's book Touching the Void? Both of Krakauer's books were about death. Touching the Void is about surviving.

 

[ManofKent]

Originally Posted by Mountains

Also, very Amerocentric, but most things on the blogosphere are.

Yes decent if unimaginative list but very American.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by Milhouse

What about Beowulf? Why isn't that on the list?

Why are most of those books on the list? Beowulf, The Iliad, The Odyssey, etc. do not belong on the list. They are epic poems which have had the stories torn from the verse leaving a labotomized tale and languid prosody flopping on the floor apart from one another.

It's an awful eclecticism which belies the understanding of most who would be exposed to it. The people who most likely should be reading these books are reading them -- for the second or third time -- and those who want a notch on their belt instead of an idea in their head are copying the grocery list for the next time they're done with their double-shot-latte at Barnes and Noble.

 

[jmolt]

I've read 18 or so of these books. All of which have been read in high school, I would say at least half of these books are on the AP/IB book list and a few are on the IB history list.

 

[odoreater]

I've read 33 of these books. Damn I'm friggen manly.

 

[scarphe]

the list is not manly it is anglo american and predictabl at best cocenring it choices of foreign lit.

 

[dah328]

Originally Posted by scarphe

the list is not manly it is anglo american and predictabl at best cocenring it choices of foreign lit.
A list of books in an American publication linked on an American-hosted forum is primarily Anglo-American? Who would have thunk?

 

[Agnacious]

I have read 36.5 (I can't make it through Moby Dick). I was surprised to see The Metamorphosis listed. I read that about 30 years ago and all I remember is man wakes up as a bug. I am guessing I missed the sociopolitical message so it is probably due for a revisit.

I was actually going to start a thread about the Tarzan books, but now I don't have to. I read all the books, 30 something, at the same time as my father. He would read one first and leave it outside his door for me. We had great times talking about the books and really brought us closer, it is one of my favorite memories from my youth.

We still trade books, though he reads at a much faster clip than I am able to at this point.

 

[munchausen]

I definitely don't feel that I got anything from Atlas Shrugged, other than a headache and a reason to dismiss the opinion of anyone who cites it as a 'favorite'

 

[Nil]

I'm at 52. Well, 51 and some fraction as I haven't read the entire Bible cover-to-cover.

 

[RedLantern]

I'm surprised Sometiimes a Great Notion isn't on there.

 

[wmmk]

Undoubtedly a good list of books, but it seems to stress the idea that a great man ought to read all of these, or at least most of them. As why implied, most of this blog's readers are less than likely to reread any of these very many times. To quote Flaubert, "What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books."

 

[JonHecht]

48 and I hate Atlas Shrugged. http://www.ginandtacos.com/2009/03/1...****-ayn-rand/ http://www.ginandtacos.com/2009/11/1...ng-sociopathy/ Edit: To add, I prefer Adler's list.

 

[Bradford]

I've read 43 of these books and I quite like the selection as presented.

While you can certainly quibble, and you have to realize that the AOM site itself is fairly obsessed with Teddy Roosevelt and Hemingway, I'd say anything that gets men or boys to read is good in my opinion.

 

[gregaz]

Jules Verne is not on the list?!?!?! The Russian selection is OK ... would love to see some Solzhenitsyn.