Listening is a great way to experience a story.

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You can find books in any of the following groups:

Here are some recommendations from some guys we trust.

Click here for Everyone

Patrick Jones

is a Senior Librarian at the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, MN.  This is what he says:

The Great Eight: great books (kind of) for guys.  Also: Magazines. Anytime I’m asked for booklist, I ask, “What about magazines, don’t they count?” Well, it’s my list so they count.  Read a magazine every month or week.

Patrick Jones

is the undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion of All-Things-Wrestling-In-The-Library.  This is his Book / Fight Club List: Ten best for teen boys about things in the ring.

  • Becoming the Natural, My Life In and Out of the Cage

  • There are many UFC biographies out, so it's who you like. I'm an old guy; I like the old guy.

  • Headlock

  • A novel about a teen breaking into wrestling while wrestling with some problems of his own. The author is a Ric Flair fan (whooo!).

  • Lion’s Tale, Around the World in Spandex

  • There's a lot of wrestling biographies out there, but Y2J's is probably best of the newer ones probably because he takes himself the least serious of all the squared circle scribes.

  • Mondo Lucha A Go-Go, The Bizarre and Honorable World of Wild Mexican Wrestling

  • Filled with photos of these masked Mexican wrestlers, this is a must to understand the history and scope of pro wrestling.

  • Octagon

  • Nothing but photos of UFC fighters through all stages of their careers. From the founders like Ken Shamrock to the modern kings of eight-sided cage, a wonderful way to browse the history of UFC.

  • Title Shot, Into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts

  • The book follows the author's journey to become a MMA fighter. He thought training for the Army was hard work. Welcome to the cage.

  • Warrior Angel

  • The 4th novel of a series that started in the 1960s still punches hard with hard punches and harder choices.

  • Whole Sky Full of Stars

  • A quick little read about a young man trying to earn money, and respect, by winning a boxing tournament.

  • Why I Fight, A Novel

  • The gritty covers lets you know the story inside is a tough one about a young man searching for himself, one fight at a time.

  • WWE Encyclopedia

  • You get photos, lists, more photos, and more lists. As JR would say, "Business is about to pick up."

Adam McCauley

There are too many incredible books to list, but these come to mind first for me as important in my own upbringing.  I was basically steeped in Tintin as a child, basted by Oz and Tolkien, troubled by Jansson, tickled by Asterix and taught by Lear.  It wasn’t until High School that I saw Codex Seriphinianus, and I was thrown irrevocably into the world of illustration for good.

Daniel Handler

is, most famously, the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events.  He also plays a mean accordian.

  • The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily

  • This book contains fierce battles, a magic wand, illegal gambling, a sea serpent, many ghosts and a werewolf, although the werewolf in the book doesn't really appear in the book. This has been my favorite book since I was a tiny brat, and now that I am larger I try to make everyone read it.

  • The Headless Cupid

  • This is another lifelong favorite of mine, about a poltergeist, which is either an invisible ghost throwing things around or somebody pretending to be an invisible ghost throwing things around.

  • Danny, the Champion of the World

  • Everybody knows Roald Dahl, but you might not know this book, which is not only a great suspense story but teaches you several methods of hunting pheasant illegally, which your parents have probably not taught you. Another thing you might not know about Roald Dahl is that if you go online you can take a virtual tour of the disgusting hut in which he wrote his books.

  • How I Live Now

  • This starts out as a pleasant summer story about spending time with one’s cousins and then suddenly gets pretty scary.

  • Running Wild

  • This book is even scarier. It might be too scary for you. It is about some nasty, nasty children. I don't really like to think about this book, which is probably why I've read it three times.

  • Halloween Party

  • OK, this book isn't nearly as scary. It's just about a young girl who gets murdered while bobbing for apples. Agatha Christie is fun to read because there's always a mystery, and often there's a list of characters in the front in case you start getting confused.

Dan Gutman

Anything by Robert Benchley, Woody Allen, Mark Twain, Dave Barry, Roald Dahl, Robert Cormier, Jack Gantos, Peg Kehret, Gary Paulsen, Carl Hiassen, Andrew Clements, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Gordon Korman, Roland Smith, Anthony Horowitz, and some guy named Jon Scieszka.

  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret

  • Genius. The Sgt. Pepper of children's books.

  • Hatchet

  • Still the best survival story.

  • Ball Four

  • This is the book that turned me on to reading. For the first time, somebody wrote like they were having a conversation with me.

  • Yertle the Turtle

  • Or anything by Dr. Seuss. Can’t beat it.

  • Mad Magazine

  • Without it, all intelligent life on Earth would have ceased to exist.