Esquire does their 80 books for manly men list again.

Once more, Esquire feels the need to poke the bear with another iteration of their 80 books every man needs to read. 

 

They've been doing this since at least 2011. At that time, out of 75 books they suggested, I got 8 out of what I found to be a pretty sorry bunch. 

 

Then they did it again, up to 80 books for men in 2015 with a tweak or two because apparently they got flak for the list being too white, too elitist, too whatever group did not feel included, etc. I checked my reading against that one too, and I got 9 whole books I had read.

Apparently they went back to the drawing board in 2016, and to cover their asses they made a "new and improved" list. This one they went all out and got "eight female literary luminaries including Michiko Kakutani, Roxane Gay, and Lauren Groff. It was a good list: surprising, dynamic, and inclusive." You would think they would stop at that point but nay nay nay. I did not check myself against the 2016 list.

So now in 2022 they have decided to "to step back into the literary Thunderdome and issue a new iteration of 80 Books Every Man Should Read. Our editors gathered in our New York office to nominate hundreds of choices, then winnow them down to these 80 worthy standouts. From fiction to nonfiction to poetry, Nobel Prize winners to forgotten geniuses, this list spans a wide swath of forms, writers, and literary history. These books will change you, challenge you, and above all entertain you." 

I can assure you, no these books will probably not do all those noble things they claim they will do. Well, perhaps for some people. As Ranganathan said, "every book its reader, and every reader their book." I will just say most of the books on this list and similar lists are the kinds of books I could not care less about. Some are books I was forced to read in some stage of my education, and the rest are just not in my reading horizon to put it politely. But, since it is a list for men, and last I looked I am a man, let's see if my numbers have improved. To be honest, I am not impressed by this iteration of the list which feels a bit like they are trying to pander as much as possible while keeping some classics in to say they got the basics. It is a list for guys, so naturally they included manly things like books about sports and other manly pursuits too. Given that I am not exactly the most manly of men, and I did not inherit the "gotta love sports, competition, and violence" gene to be manly, I expect to score low on the list overall. Rest of the remaining list is a common blend of literary fiction, and my three readers know I am not much into that.

As I always do with this kind of exercise, I will highlight titles of books I have read in bold. I will add authors I have read, also in bold. This means I may not have read the specific book on the list, but I have read other works by that author. I will add the title of the alternate work, if I remember it. I may also add some snarky comment here or there.

Here is the list in print then, in the order the magazine presented it: 

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. (The book that at this point in time no one can get away from given current events. I read it before SCOTUS royally fucked the goat recently. It was enough to let me know I will never read anything else by Atwood again). 
2. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. (I have read other stuff by Baldwin, probably in grad school, and no, I do not recall). 
3. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin.
4. Ball Four by Jim Bouton. 
5. It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium by John Ed Bradley. 
6. The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant. 
7. Kindred by Octavia Butler. (I also read her two parable novels).
8. The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro. (If I memory serves me right, I may have this on my TBR list in part due to a couple of Mafia books I've read that mention this book). 
9. The Letters of John Cheever by John Cheever.  
10. Be Here Now by Ram Dass. 
11. The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson. (I was an English major in a previous life, so sooner or later I had to read Dickinson).
12. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. 
13. The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas. 
14. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. (I actually wrote a review for it; this was back when I was barely starting to review books.)
    
15. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
16. Infinite Country by Patricia Engel. 
17. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
18. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (I read what most kids in schools read, which is The Great Gatsby.)
19. You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming. 
20. Fat City by Leonard Gardner.
21. The Collected Poems of Jack Gilbert by Jack Gilbert. 
22. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant. 
23. Dune by Frank Herbert. (This is one I have read more than once.)
    
24. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks. (I have read other works by bell hooks including Teaching to Transgress. My review here.)
25. A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons. 
26. The Remains of the Day by Kashuo Ishiguro. 
27. The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers.
28. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. 
29. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.
30. Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. 
31. It by Stephen King. (I have read other books by King including Needful Things.)
32. Out by Natsuo Kirino. 
33. The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner.
34. Angels in America by Tony Kushner (I read this in grad school in one of the best drama classes I've taken.)
35. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John LeCarre. 
36. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. 
37. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin. (This is the obligatory LeGuin book almost everyone puts on their lists. I've read other stuff by her.)
38. A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor. 
39. Killshot by Elmore Leonard. 
40. A River Runs Through It by Norman McLean.
41. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. 
42. Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx. 
43. The Dark Side by Jane Meyer.
44. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.
45. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. (Yes, I read the whale book as well as other shorter works by Melville.)
46. Self-Help by Lorrie Moore. 
47. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. (I've read Beloved.)
48. The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad. 
49. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
50. There There by Tommy Orange.
51. True Grit by Charles Portis. (I pretty much hated this one.)
52. Patrimony by Philip Roth.
53. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. 
54. Light Years by James Salter. 
55. Crazy Horse: the Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz. 
56. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. 
57. Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. 
58. White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
59. Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag.
60. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (I've read other stuff by Steinbeck.)
61. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.
62. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
63. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (have read other stuff by Tolstoy.)
64. Cane by Jean Toomer.
65. Sex Object by Jessica Valenti.
66. Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson.
67. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. 
68. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.
69. All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.
70. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.
71. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (I've read something by this author, in grad school, but do not ask me to remember what it was. I can assure you it was not this, and no, I did not enjoy it.)
72. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. 
73. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.
74. Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman.
75. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
76. The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams. 
77. Black Boy by Richard Wright.
78. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson. 
79. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X. 
80. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
    

 

Well, I have read 14 books from the list and 10 additional authors from the list, so I've made some small gain, even if just by serendipity. I will be honest, most of these authors are literary fiction that does not interest me, and a few others would fall under my self-imposed moratorium on politics, social issues, and activist material. I don't feel any less manly for the low number. Anyhow, I am sure at some point they'll tweak it again, and if I am around, we'll see how I do. 

So how about any of my three readers? How many of these have you read? Any you want to add to your TBR (to be read) list? Personally there is nothing here I really want to add to the TBR list, but feel free to let me know and comment.