The Art of Manliness' 100 Must-Read Books

Even if this site seems to have a slight tinge of testosterone poisoning, this is a fairly good list of books. There are a few I would've left off (I actually think that The Dharma Bums is a much better Kerouac novel than On The Road), but overall, not a bad list. I also really like a lot of the pictures of books that accompany the list.

thanks alecks.. i was hoping someone would say something along those lines. agreed 100%. although yes, it's great to identify with series of books, but they should not be used in order to establish a particular identity (here, it is to be identified as 'manly'), rather, they should be used to gain perspectives that help shape your identity. i think HALF of those books should have been by women because half of the world is female. if you only know and exhibit the patriarchal perspective, half the world is going to hate you.

Good point, Alecks.
This list could just as easily have been labelled "100 Must-Read Books for Pretentious Assholes".

Something really rubs me the wrong way with The Art of Manliness' self-branding and its subsequent popularity with Digg. Don't get me wrong, I love most of what its articles have to say, as they contain sound life, practical, and career advice. But the fact is, TAOM applies to anyone who wants to be a level-headed, well-balanced mature adult who lives life to the fullest. To suggest that such concerns are purely the domain of men makes me feel like we've stepped back into a less enlightened time...

And what more, the site's prose often has glimmers of homophobia and a dated appeal to the fantasy of rugged individualism, and often moans about the emasculating nature of today's society, romanticizes war, denies the value of psychiatry and the medical nature of depression, and also brazenly perpetuates the stereotypes and accentuates societal gender differences between the sexes, mistaking them for inborne traits essential to a sexual identity.

I have more than half of those books on my bookshelf. Dostoevsky ranks up there as one of my favorite authors of all time, but seemed a little heavy on the list along with Roosevelt. As a woman, I think there should have been at least one chick book on there if for no other reason than to give men insight into the incomprehensibly twisted, emotional minds of women.