Incredible books are published every year, but over the centuries certain books have held a particular appeal for men. Many of the best books for men explicitly deal with themes of masculinity or fatherhood. Others are just plain old fashioned page-turners. If you’re a man who loves to read (or a man who wants to be the kind of man who loves to read), certain books absolutely belong on your literary bucket list.
Upgrade your personal library by reading the best books for men ever written. Our list includes Nobel Prize Winners and Pulitzer Prize Winners, comedies and tragedies, and everything from thrilling adventures to sobering commentaries on life itself. These books answer the big questions, like:
- What’s the meaning of life?
- What is masculinity?
- How can I make my life (including my sex life) better?
- What does it mean to seek adventure?
- How has society historically dealt with issues of gender?
Purchase the best books for men on paperback, for your Kindle, or listen to the audiobooks for free with a 30-day free trial to Audible here.
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Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon There’s never been a book like Into Thin Air, and hopefully there never will be again. John Krakauer, the author best known for his novel Into the Wild, was a journalist and climber when Outside magazine hired him to ascend Mount Everest with experienced guide Rob Hall. He was there to report on the state of the mountain, which was becoming more crowded and more commercialized. That’s how Krakauer came to be at ground zero of the worst disaster in Everest history at the time. Into Thin Air is a tragic accounting of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, which claimed the lives of Rob Hall and seven other climbers.
Krakauer is a skilled journalist and novelist, and he brings his considerable talents to the task of telling this tragic story. Part sports novel, part tragedy and part history, this is an unforgettable book.
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The Stranger, by Albert Camus
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon We live in absurd times, and the absurd is the subject of The Stranger. In this Nobel Prize-winning novel, Albert Camus explores existentialism the way only a disaffected French writer can. This classic novel was written in 1942, but its themes and subject matter are still relevant for the current era. Although it’s not exactly a beach read, The Stranger isn’t nearly as dense as many other books on this list. At just 159 pages, this short novel packs a powerful message about the absurdity of life itself.
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The Joy of Sex, by Alex Comfort
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon After the Kama Sutra, The Joy of Sex may just be the most famous book about sex ever written. The illustrated manual has informed and titillated readers since it was first released in 1972. A frequently banned book, The Joy of Sex has a simple thesis: sex is fun! As is to be expected from a sex manual published in the 1970s, the book does have some dated messages and focuses on heterosexual sex. Even so, this book is a fantastic resource for any couple looking to discover — or rediscover — the joy of sex.
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The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon The tools of war have evolved in terrifying ways since master military strategist Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War in the 5th century BC. But apparently people have not, because military leaders from throughout the world and time have turned to this book for inspiration. While you may never need to break your enemy’s shield wall or withstand a barrage of fiery arrows, you will still face many enemies in life. Be they romantic, business or personal challengers, the principles contained in this ancient text will help you outthink your enemies to achieve victory.
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Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Many of the best books for men are set during World War II, but Catch-22 is a war novel that defies easy explanations. It’s a maddening and hilarious book about a group of American airmen trying to survive the war, get laid, fall in love and make a buck. Full of shifting points of view and strange characters, Catch-22 isn’t like other war novels you’ve read. This novel can be difficult to get started; you may need to pick it up and put it down a few times before the story hooks you. But give it an honest try because this dark, absurd comedy absolutely belongs on your bookshelf.
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Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon The definition of manhood changes from culture to culture and generation to generation, and many men are rethinking traditional gender roles that have limited men and women for too long. That’s why Virginia Woolf’s epic novel is so relevant. This magical satire follows a male nobleman in Elizabethan England who undergoes a mysterious sex change. Orlando inexplicably goes on to live for hundreds of years under a number of identities and witnesses generations of English and world history. It’s a strange, fascinating novel that explores ideas about sex and gender that we’re still unraveling today.
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Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Between the World and Me is the most recently published book on this list. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize after its publication in 2015, and Ta-Nehisi Coates has become one of the most influential thinkers and writers of our time. This book takes the form of a letter to the author’s teenage son, and it’s a powerful meditation on race in America.
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Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon This comedy of errors is the perfect book for our strange times. Set in New Orleans, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers around the boorish, ridiculous, morbidly obese virgin Ignatius J. Reilly and the absolute chaos he causes in the lives of everyone he meets. Reilly is an ignorant boob, but he’s not dumb. In fact, he’s intelligent and articulate, which is why this novel by John Kennedy Toole is the perfect novel for our overeducated era, where everyone is absolutely convinced that they know best.
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The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Modern American literature is full of classic science fiction and fantasy — Isaac Asimov, H.P. Lovecraft, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Octavia E. Butler and so many more. However, Chinese literature has its own science-fiction greats, and this incredible body of work is being translated for American audiences for the first time.
The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Chinese author Liu Cixin. It’s a masterful work of science fiction that’s full of heady, philosophical mind-benders. For men looking to add something a bit more contemporary to their bookshelf (or Kindle), this is one of the best books for men of the 21st Century.
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The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the greatest adventure novels ever written, and it’s enduring appeal has enchanted countless readers since its publication in 19th century France. It’s a story about lost love, treasure and revenge.
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The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Why is The Feminine Mystique on a list of the best books for men? Because it’s the 21st century, and men shouldn’t be afraid of the word feminism. Betty Friedan helped spark the second wave of feminism when she published The Feminine Mystique in 1963, and the book explained in blunt terms the suffocating biological sex roles enforced by society. Some of the language and ideas are more than a little dated by now, but it’s an eye-opening book that gives valuable insight into one of the most important social movements in world history.
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Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Whether you’re familiar with author Chuck Palahniuk or only know of Fight Club through the movie adaptation starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, we know that you’ve heard of Fight Club. While David Fincher’s movie adaptation is perfect in its own way, the novel is a must-read. Contrary to popular opinion, Fight Club isn’t an endorsement of omnidirectional male rage. Unfortunately for the countless bros who taped a Fight Club movie poster up on their frat house walls, the novel is a brilliant satire of masculinity and consumer culture. It’s a fantastic piece of contemporary literature written in the signature style of Palahniuk. It’s also a great read from beginning to end.
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Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Most writers spend decades practicing their craft before they write something truly important, if they ever do. But Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18 years old. You might think of Frankenstein as one more old book you were forced to read in high school, but the novel changed the face of world literature. The novel has many elements of classic Gothic and Romantic novels (that’s Romantic, as in the movement, not romance, as in the modern genre), but it would be a mistake to think of Frankenstein as derivative. Many critics believe that Frankenstein was the first true science fiction story, and Frankenstein’s monster has become an iconic figure in pop culture.
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The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Like a lot of stories by Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises follows a group of American and British expats as they cavort around Europe getting drunk. But this modernist novel deals with the subject of masculinity itself. The novel follows the unconsummated love affair between Jake Barnes and the scandalously divorced Lady Brett Ashley. Due to a wartime injury, Barnes is unable to have sex, and Hemingway depicts his characters’ complex relationship with incredible skill.
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The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Hemingway is the only author to appear on this list twice, and for good reason. While our ideas of masculinity and gender roles are changing, Hemingway embodied traditional masculinity in both his life and his works. His economical prose has influenced generations of writers, and his novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 (The Nobel Committee also cited the novella when awarding Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature). On the surface, this is a simple story — an old Cuban fisherman does battle against a giant marlin. Yet this short work of art has a devastating effect on the reader, and the brief story contains volumes. It’s a deeply affecting meditation on masculinity, mortality and nature.
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100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Hemingway isn’t the only Nobel Prize winner on this list. While Hemingway was a key literary figure in defining the sparse prose of Modernist fiction, Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez defined the magical realist style that has inspired so many contemporary writers. This 1967 novel spans across generations and tells the story of the fictional town of Macondo. It’s not a novel that’s easily synopsized; it’s a kaleidoscopic work of genius that blooms off the page and into your imagination.
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The Republic of Plato, by Plato
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon If you own one piece of literature from the Classics period, let it be Plato’s Republic. Written almost 400 years before the birth of Christ, this is one of the most influential pieces of writing in the history of mankind. This Socratic dialogue explores the ideal structure of government and humanity.
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Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Slaughterhouse Five is a masterpiece of both science fiction and contemporary American literature. It’s the most famous work by the American writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who personally witnessed the firebombing of Dresden, Germany while a prisoner of war in Nazi custody during WWII. This strange and thoughtful book depicts the senseless slaughter of war through the eyes of the hapless Billy Pilgrim, who splits time between an alien zoo on Tralfamadore and Nazi Germany.
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Band of Brothers, by Stephen E. Ambrose
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Band of Brothers is a military non-fiction novel by Stephen E. Ambrose, who interviewed members of the 101st Airborne. During the course of the Allied Invasion of Europe, these men went from Normandy to Hitler’s mountaintop retreat the Eagle’s Nest, where the Third Reich came to an end. It’s a powerful story of the Greatest Generation, and a gripping read. As the number of living World War II veterans declines, this book is more essential than ever.
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Start With Why, by Simon Sinek
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Any man that considers himself a leader — or wants to be — should listen to Simon Sinek. Calling Sinek a motivational speaker doesn’t do him justice. Corporate leaders think of him as a Millennial Whisperer, and his TED Talks should be essential viewing for any manager or business owner. However, his ideas have applications beyond the corporate world. At its core, this book explores what makes great leaders so effective, and it offers crucial insights into effective leadership.
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The Shining, by Stephen King
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Stephen King has published so many classic novels already, and he’s still writing. Choosing just one King novel for your bookshelf isn’t easy. Fortunately, there’s no reason to limit yourself to just one. However, for the sake of keeping this list short, consider adding The Shining to your literary bucket list. An instant classic when it was released, this novel has terrified readers on the page and on the big screen.
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The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest living writers, and The Road is his best known work. The novel follows a father and son as they make their way across a post-apocalyptic United States. It’s a violent, gut-punch of a book from an incredible American author at the height of his literary powers.
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To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Were you forced to read To Kill a Mockingbird in school, too? Virtually every student in America reads this book (or, at least, the Cliff Notes), and for good reason. This quintessentially American novel by Harper Lee explores the brutal reality of racism in the United States. The novel’s hero, lawyer Atticus Finch, has become one of the most beloved heroes in American literature. Lee received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel.
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The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon The Call of the Wild is Jack London’s most famous novel. It’s a short adventure story about a very, very good dog. The novel is set during the Yukon Gold Rush and is an iconic piece of Americana. London was a dog person, obviously, and he understood the primal connection between a man and his dog.
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Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon If you still haven’t read Watchmen (or even opened a graphic novel before), then you should know this going in: Watchmen is a work of art unlike anything you’ve read before. This meta-reflection on the superhero genre and graphic novel medium follows a group of masked adventurers as they try to stop the world from ending. Set in an alternate version of the Cold War, this graphic novel is beautiful and haunting. Time magazine named Watchmen one of the 100 greatest novels ever written, and it really is that good.
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Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Nelson Mandela was one of the greatest men who ever lived, and his autobiography should be required reading. This book details his incredible life journey, from childhood to activism to prison to presidency. And the story comes straight from the leader of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement himself. If you’re thinking autobiographies aren’t for you, make this the exception.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Originally released in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is still just as relevant today, 85 years later. This book is designed to help you live a better life and be a better man. It does so by teaching you how to make people like you and how to win any debate without arousing resentment. This is really essential reading for anyone who wants to have a career. While some of the language is dated, you’ll be surprised by how well this book holds up, and how much you still have to learn about making friends.