What are the essential books every man should read? I asked ChatGPT that question recently, limiting it to “the 10 best books.” None of the authors on the list I got were born in the last 50 years. None of them are women. One is a manosphere bloviator. One is Jordan Peterson.
I didn’t have high hopes for this test, but it did prove a point I wanted to make: men need better book recommendations. Plenty has been written this year about men drifting away from fiction and how well-read American men have become something of a rarity, but maybe the problem isn’t that men are now hypnotized by podcasters and video games. Maybe the problem is that when men do seek out an engaging novel, insightful memoir or, hell, even some poems to sink their teeth into, they don’t respond to what they’re served up.
We came up with a solution: 72 new books every man should read. Instead of tossing the old masculine canon in the shredder — Hemingway, Salinger, The Power Broker — we’re actually using those books as a jumping-off point: for every new work we believe men should consider, we’re pairing it with a classic. Go ahead and take anything that piques your interest. We’ll be waiting with more when you’re done. — Alex Lauer
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