The Essential Man's Library

Came across a very interesting (and thought provoking) post on The Art of Manliness.

Its a list of 100 must-read books for men. While the list (and site) is clearly focused towards men, I think the list is valuable to anybody (both men and ladies...boys and girls)...so please check it out

I went through the list, and it looks like I'm more well-rounded than I thought. Here's the books that I've read on it:

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
The Republic by Plato
The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger
How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Leaving through the list, here's a list of books that is on my list...or that I really really want to read:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
The Art of Warfare by Sun Tzu
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (Thanks Amish for this one)
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (loved the movie, one of my favorites)

Shantaram - follow up

Earlier, I blogged about Shantaram, a book by Greg David Roberts. In that post, I forgot to mention another reason to read it....the characters!

Prabu
Lin
Karla
Johnny Cigar
Khader Khan
Abdullah

there are many more, but these are the ones that stick in my head....read it!

Shantaram - review of the first half

I've been engrossed by a book named Shantaram by Greg David Roberts. Pick up the book at your local book store, its huge....something like 1000 pages. But don't be put off by the size.

To be honest, I was put off by the size, so I did the next best thing....I grabbed the audiobook. The audiobook is also ridiculously huge, 35 cds...but fits nicely onto my ipod.

Once you overcome the shear size of the book, you can finally start reading (listening).

The book is a dramatized account of the author's life. Lindsey (the main character) is a fugitive who escaped from a maximum security Australian prison. His story winds him to Bombay, where he works as a (among other things) village doctor, drug dealer, and thief.

I'm about halfway into the book, and I don't want to give away too much.....so some very general pros and cons.

the pros:

- great description of India. The author has clearly spent a lot of time in India, and speaks with passion about his time. Whether he's in a 4-star hotel, or in the middle of a slum, he loves Bombay.

- engaging story. even though parts of the book are kinda dry and "boring", the author has a way with words....and manages to keep the reader engaged.

- the actor. as I mentioned above....I'm listening to the audiobook, and the producer found an Australian actor to read the book, and so it adds a bit more authenticity to the story.

Cons:

- looooong....the book is very long, and there are some dry spots in between the action


So....once you get over the length of hte book...pick it up, read it, and love it.