I'm Looking for a Few Good Men . . .

[lolly]

To recommend some good books.

More specifically, I'd like a short list of "literary" (they can be popular, but should have enough literary merit for a college freshman English class) that young men would enjoy reading.

I have tons of stuff for young women, but not sure about what the guys like to read. Should be about 200-300 pages.

Any ideas?

On edit: Has to be fiction. I'd like something that would make people think--doesn't have to be overtly political.

Think along the lines of "The Color Purple" or an Amy Tan book that is centered on a male character?

[NMDemDist2]

1. ain't we all honey

:smoke:

[BlueCollar]

2. catcher in the rye...eom

[HEyHEY]

3. Pappiliion, Seven Years in Tibet, Hell's Angels

[vivalarev]

4. Big Sur....Jack Kerouac

Id bet every one of your male students would enjoy it

[Racenut20]

5. Are they Republicans?

I hear "my pet goat" is petty popular in their circles.

Seriously, I am reading Maureen Dowds "Bushworld", and it is pretty dy-no-mite..... More in the introduction, than most books have in the book.

[Sporadicus]

6. Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me

by Richard Farina & Thomas Pynchon. It has acquired somewhat of a cult status, and there are enough drug-sex-'n'-party references to keep the post-adolescent male mind occupied long enough to finish the book. They'll digest a great coming-of-age novel in the guise of bacchanalia!

[lolly]

7. I'll check that one out.

Pynchon--didn't he write "Crying of Lot 49?" Is this similar?

[Sporadicus]

18. Yes, He Did

but I have reservations on whether the average postadolescent male would remain interested throughout this one; they may consider it a bit 'heavy.'

[7th_Sephiroth]

8. lets see

Art of war- Sun Tzu
A book of five rings-Miyamoto Musashi
1984-George Orwell

[Zomby Woof]

9. Kerouac's "On The Road"

Unpretentious, straightforward, and plenty for which young men can relate.

Avoid "Catcher In The Rye", a snotty overrated piece of adolescent puke. Salinger mainly appeals to asocial pseudo-intellectuals.

[Speck Tater]

10. Lolita. And yes, I am serious.

[JVS]

21. Great book!

On edit: And yes, reading it at the library that was adjacent to the elementary and middle schools of the school district got me some strange looks.

[indigobusiness]

11. Suttree--Cormac MacCarthy......A Confederacy of Dunces--J.K. Toole

'Blood Meridian' is another good MacCarthy choice. In case Suttree is too long. Stunningly wrought.

Island of the Day Before - Umberto Ecco

Rule of the Bone - Russell Banks

The Magus - John Fowles

[Rowdyboy]

12. "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Great, Pulitzer prize-winning literature that is easy to read, laugh-out-loud funny, and open to any number of critical approaches. They'll love you for turning them onto this book.

The main character is a rather large, very opinionated, lunatic es-graduate student named Ignatius Reilly who has a variety of occupations, including hotdog salesman...Check it out...

http://www.curledup.com/dunces.htm

[tedoll78]

13. Damn.. fiction?

What about semi-fiction?

If you want something deeply philosophical, and somewhat of a challenge.. let them read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Perhaps my favorite book of all time.

[Kire]

14. Anything by....

Graham Greene, Ken Kesey, Richard Russo for a classic touch,

David Sedaris for comic visions,

Kafka/Camus/Sartre/Celine for the existentialist taste,

Barry Gifford and Charles Bukowski for the noir-ish American feel,

Garrison Keillor (especially his new one, Homegrown Democrat), for a more wholesome, but still edgy, um, smell -- Rhubarb Pie! LOL

"You are not a stranger here" by Adam Haslett is the best damn short story collection I've read. But it is very tragic, if he's not too cool to cry.

good luck

[Swamp Rat]

15. "Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man" by Thomas Mann

It is hilarious and it won a Nobel Prize for literature. It fits your criteria though it's about 375 pages. They will enjoy it and it might inspire (like it did for me) some to travel to the Rhine River region.

[eaprez]

16. Just ONE will do for me...I'm not greedy :)

[lolly]

24. Well, I've got two

OK, one of them is only 6--a good man-in-training.

[MrSandman]

17. "I heard he Owl Call My Name"

Toni Morrison

[roguevalley]

19. S.E. Hinton. All of them.

[JVS]

20. Player Piano by Vonnegut

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385333781/qid=1093131685/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-2106175-8704162

[JVS]

22. Bell's "Out of this furnace"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0822952734/102-2106175-8704162?v=glance

[lolly]

23. Thanks Folks!

Lots of good ideas here--I think I can put a list together now. :hi:

[skrunch]

25. Try some Paul Auster

The New York Trilogy or The Music Of Chance

[Aristus]

26. "The Seed And The Sower" by Sir Laurence Van Der Post.

A haunting, beautiful story about men at war, and how they deal with the aftermath.