MAN-BOOKS FOR MAN-MEN!

WHO WANTS TO BE A MAN?  YOU DO!  SO READ THESE BOOKS THEY ARE MANLY!  BUT HOW WILL THEY MAKE YOU MORE MANLY?

I WILL TELL YOU!

THIS ONE WILL CHALLENGE YOU ON MANY LEVELS AND WORK YOUR BACK AND BICEPS!  THIS ONE IS MARKED BY EXTREME VIOLENCE AND CONTAINS MANY RELIGIOUS REFERENCES!  IN THIS ONE THE AUTHOR IS JUST THERE!  YOU WILL BE TOO!  THIS ONE WILL BE RELEASED AS A FILM NEXT YEAR AND IT WILL MAKE MONEY!  MONEY IS MANLY READ IT READ IT READ IT!

Comments

[Dan Collins]

Ayn Rand's still not going to make you as manly as Coulter. Unless you use HGH.

[Ahistoricality]

I love the mix of Frederick Jackson Turner and Robert Pirsig, Teddy Roosevelt and Jack Kerouac, the Bible and Joseph Heller, Benjamin Franklin and Kurt Vonnegutt....

Aparently, to be MANLY is to be ever-so-slightly schizophrenic.

[andrew]

I've only looked at the first page of the list, but there seems to be a lot of overlap with books that would be considered part of the canon (to the extent that there is one). Sort of an illustration of the point that some things seen (or presented) as having a universal value also (or actually) have a particular - in this case particularly gendered - appeal.

[JPool]

"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."

The copy is pretty awful, but I like about half the retro cover shots. I particularly like the Miro(esque?) cover of Animal Farm and the raftification of The Iliad (I think that's what's going on; let me know if you have another theory) is just adorable.

[Jake]

SEK - I need help.

I'm looking through your archives for a post on some brain experiment on either a hamster or mouse you were writing about. It had something to do with psychoanalysis. That's all I can remember. I'm having a tough time finding it and using Google or the categories listed on the site is not making the task easier. I was hoping you, in your great wisdom and kindness, could unearth the post from your vast archives.

[zunguzungu]

Ditto on Jpool's admiration of the illustrations, which are much more articulate texts than the text. I like, for example, that there are a couple of volumes of Kipling resting atop the leather-bound Plato. Not sure what kind of a statement is being made there, but I dig it.

[Luke]

I can't not read this post using this voice.

[Luke]

Its a strange list they've come up with to say the least. What would an Un-manliness list look like? A Confederacy of Dunces, Smith's On Beauty?

[zunguzungu]

It is absolutely criminal that "The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World's Greatest Human" is not on this list.

For example: Chuck Norris can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA. Decades from now your descendants will occasionally clutch their heads and yell "What The Hell was That?"

[The Constructivist]

Hawthorne would definitely be on the unmanliness list!

[Nullifidian]

Flaubert would be a good candidate for the unmanliness list.

And speaking of films, the first in your list is going to be made into a film too. With Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. I am very afraid for the future of cinema.

[jake]

Thanks SEK! (Just checked my inbox.)