Some Classic Books Recommended for Men, Specifically, for 2018

Recently, I came across this list of 18 books (presumably for the year 2018) that men should read this year. 

I have read most of these books, although admittedly not all of them. Most of them are classics, and it seems that the vast majority of them are by either Americans or by Brits, although why that is, I cannot be certain. It always fascinated and/or repulsed me a bit, this fixation on seeing only one's culture as worthy of reflection and review, as if there is little to no literature outside of our Anglo cultures that would be worthy of receiving our attention. 

Frankly, I feel that this is one of the major problems with the United States (and the a lesser extent, Great Britain) in general, this inability to see any value with what other people in other lands are doing, and if we might not learn from them. 

In any case, I digress. Indeed, these are solid books, and by good authors, and we should indeed give them a read. I recently reread Load of the Flies, for example, and want to reread it with my son, although at 12 years old, he may or may not be a bit too young for it yet. My guess is that he is old enough to appreciate it.

One of my favorite authors is listed here. Kurt Vonnegut had long been among my very favorite authors, and I wish we had him around today, with all of his wit and wisdom. The work that the author recommends is his best known work, Slaughterhouse-5, which in fact, I was long thinking of rereading, as well. There have been numerous books by him that I indeed had reread in recent years, including Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, and Mother Night, but not yet Slaughterhouse-5. 

Perhaps I should mention one last book on this list that I read long ago, but have been meaning to reread for quite a while now, as well. That would be J.D. Salinger's famous work, A Catcher in the Rye. 

The rest of these books I mostly have read but not thought of too much lately, or have not read at all. Admittedly, I never did simply take out my car manual and read it straight through, as if it were a literary work. Usually, I have leafed through it when specifically trying to locate a problem or answer some kind of question or another, although perhaps leafing through it, if not pounding through the entirety of it from cover to cover, might prove advantageous.

In any case, this was an interesting list, and even though I would think that such a list might include more international authors and other works (including some by Americans), it nonetheless seemed like something worth sharing.

And so, without further ado, here is the link to the article:

18 Classic Books Every Man Should Read (or Re-Read) in 2018 by Jahla Seppanen @JahlaSeppanen POSTED ON 1.9.18

https://www.themanual.com/culture/classic-books-every-man-should-read/?utm_source=k1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=manualtraffic&kwp_0=744147&kwp_4=2607149&kwp_1=1106495