Member Introductions

[Chris, Founder]

I would just like to welcome you to the NEW Men's Book Club. Here we will talk about our favorite books and what new books we are excited about.

I am looking forward to having this group grow. I think this is going to be a very exciting place that we can all come together and talk about books and whatever else is on our minds.

So relax, kick your shoes off, give your coat the butler and enjoy yourself here at the Men's Book Club!!!

[Randy]

Great to have a men's club. I belong to another reading group here in Louisville, KY

Randy

[P. Christopher]

I hope that we can generate some good discussion in this group and increase membership too. Right now, I am reading Confessions by Ryne Douglas Pearson. It's a mystery/thriller about a Catholic priest who ends up hearing the deathbed confession of a man he is unable to absolve for deeply personal reasons. It's not religious fiction or anything like that...just a novel with a protagonist who is a priest. It's pretty good, and the Kindle version is quite cheap on Amazon.

[Terry]

Thanks for putting this together - I look forward to reading what others are recommending out there.

[Larry]

I hope you guys find a way to make this group work. The reading community seems to be dominated by women. Not that there's anything wrong with that--but sometimes I want to talk about sports, sex, politics and conspiracy theories.

[Lefty]

Larry wrote: "I hope you guys find a way to make this group work. The reading community seems to be dominated by women. Not that there's anything wrong with that--but sometimes I want to talk about sports, sex, ..."

I agree with you. I went to review a book but paused long enough before writing it to check out the other reviewers and they were 99% women--it wasn't even a book aimed specifically at women, either.

[Andy]

Welcome to recent club members Charles, Darrell and Geoffrey. Enjoy!

[Frank]

Hello guys, you are not alone. Men in the publishing industry often feel marginalized too. There's a stat that says something like 65-75-85% of all books are bought by women. Which means that many publishers produce books primarily for women. Meaning there's a hug gap in the market.

Us.

I even had a novel rejected recently which was described as "polished and professional" by the agent's reader then dismissed because it was a book written for men. I'll find the line. Made me laugh.

Anyhoo, I'm hear to read and chat books. I'll grab a Casino Royale asap. Can I nominate Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club as a future good read?

Thanks for the welcome.

[Andy]

Hi Frank, interesting comments. Fight club could be March's book of the month suggestion (it's also in the fiction list under the A Good Read thread). I think that The life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid may be February's ...

In the real world I'm the token male at our local book group. I did drift away for a bit but they asked me back because they missed the occasional male orientated book... They feel it gets them out of a rut. We've read Rogue Male, Casino Royale, Touching the Void, Peace, The Power of One, Catch 22, Brave New World, The Key, etc over the years.

[Frank]

Hi Andy, all sounds good to me. Casino Royale and the Thunderbolt Kid on their way from Amazon (I'll read it regardless).

There's some interesting titles in your reading list there. Another good one in the Touching the Void vein (which I've never read) is John Krakauer's Into Thin Air and The Cloud Garden (little known, very unexpected).



Unadulterated reading pleasure. Wish I'd found this site/thread before!

[William]

This group should have more memebership!

Please promise me there will be no teenage zombie or teenage vampire books here.

[Andy]

A quick hello to recent new members Matt, Michael, Randall, Levi, Bennett and Clint.

[Exanimis]

I am so excited to find a group geared toward men and what they are reading. Thanks for putting this together. I am Exanimis but you can call me Ex or X, I have read sixty one books in the past five months and am currently reading a Goodreads giveaway copy of Eye of the World (book 1 of the Wheel of Time series). I am looking forward to getting to know everyone.

[Andy]

Welcome Ex. Why not add a book to our listopia page, like our Facebook page, suggest a book for July and invite your friends to join... Cheers, Andy

[Andy]

Welcome aboard new members Kyle, Rasheed, Antonio, Troy, Dean and David.

[Chris, Founder]

Antonio is a friend of mine, but I suppose you are all friends of mine now! :) Welcome!!

[Andy]

Welcome to new members Michael, Frank, Phil, Ashish and Shawn. Men's Book Group keeps growing...

[Steve]

This is great. Lately I've been wanting to expand my library and delve into multiple genres that I would normally avoid. I'm excited that this group will help me do that.

[Jack]

Having been a a full-time author since 1993, from experience and through publisher's reports, I agree with Frank that roughly 80% of the novel reading audience is female. This is true of attendance at publishers and writers conferences, so it's great to have a place where I can hang out with the other 20% of readers.

While I write mostly historical fiction and some supernatural suspense, I regularly read from a wide assortment of genres (thriller, action, sci-fi, fantasy, as well as suspense and historical). I'm currently reading The Bard by Morgan Llewelyn and am finding it to be targeted toward a female audience.

Nothing against females. I married one, and associate with a lot of very talented female writers. But I like having a place where I can hang out with the guys, both writers and readers. Looking forward to the interaction.

[Chris, Founder]

Welcome to the group Steve and Jack!

[Marco Paulo]

Hi!
Unlike most of you guys, I haven't really been a fan of reading and I've read only just few titles, most of the things I read are text books for school.

I joined because I thought maybe the group can help me want to read more.

[Andy]

Welcome aboard Frank, Carlos, Raed, Joe, James, Zac, Adrian, Raymiswan, chriseugene, Justin, Dennis, Scott, Chris, Pgmuthukumar, Travis, Danny, Marco and Brad!!!

[Daniel]

Just joined and I am looking forward to great reads and discussions! Laid up in the hospital right now and just finished Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang, Bang. Thank God my brother gave me an ipad, or I would be chewing my fingers off!

[Justin]

Are any of you in or close by Nashville TN?

[Chris, Founder]

Justin, I'm from Virginia. Not too close, but not too terribly far away. I've never been to Nashville, but I have been to Gatlinburg.

[Chris, Founder]

Daniel, hope everything is going well with you. Welcome, and hope you are enjoying your iPad!

[Chris, Founder]

Marcel, welcome to you as well!

[Justin]

Chris, you may be close to where I grew up on east tn. Johnson city area. I am trying to get a group of guys together in Nashville for a live bookclub.

[Chris, Founder]

Nope! I'm actually from Richmond, but I live in northern VA right now. That would be nice! Good luck!

[Paul]

Hi all. Day 1 for me in the book club.
I live also Live in Norther VA and work in DC (MD side to be exact)
Military background.
There aren't very many books that I don't like.
My top 5 are:
1. Enders Game
2. The Passage
3. Robopocalypse
4. Makers
5. Planet of the Apes

Very happy that I found this group. Expect me to be an active member.

Paul

[Alex]

Hello Day 1 for me as well. I live in Norman, OK. (Boomer Sooners!) married, 3 kids, soon to be Grad Student in the Fall. I like knowledge, so I don't really discriminate, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy anything written by Jennifer Weiner. Just an educated guess.

[Andy]

Hi, I'm Andy, a married father of three in Albany, Western Australia. I work as a translator - but often find myself blankly skimming through Amazon's pages or Kindle, trying to find something, not chick-lit, that stimulates me. I'm not a big reader of fiction, but like travel literature, memoirs, sports journalism, and anything with an intelligent narrative. I'm currently reading "Teach us to sit still" by Tim Parks (great for linguists), which is a pretty good read. Anyway, I'm really pleased to have found a book club geared more towards our gender. In terms of my own reading, I love cycling journalism - and have read pretty much most of the recent books relating to cycling sport (Pantani, anything about Lance, Mark Cavendish etc.), but also love books that explore the nature of being male, and how we communicate. In terms of recommendations, I've recently enjoyed:

. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdaine
. Townie, by Andre Debus III
. All that I am, by Anna Funder
. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, by Rupert Everett
. Total Recall, by Arnie
. In the Heat of the Night, by John Ball
. Full Service, by Scotty Bowers
. Caged, by Cameron Conaway
. The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas
. Belle de Jour (surprisingly good actually!)
. It's All About the Bike, by Robert Penn

... to name a few. Hope some of these appeal to other members too.

[Andy]

Yes, some more non-fiction would be good... Read Bradley Wiggin's My Time recently and found it a great read!

[Jeff]

I sure was glad to have found this little "club" amongst all of the "50 Shades," "Twighlight," Wicken/Wizard and other random RP groups on this site...
I'm new to both the site and to the group. Love to read but have the hardest time figuring out what to read!
As I've seen a few of you have said, the book world is dominated by the romance novel loving women and trying to sift through all of that to find a book that's good for men that DOESN'T include football, baseball or golf is a tough thing to do.
Don't get me wrong... I love sports as much as the next guy, but I'm not a meathead... I can read words that challenge a 12 year old's vocabulary...
Just finished Dan Brown's "Inferno" this morning and am looking for my next read. I hope I can find some good suggestions here!

[Andy]

Welcome aboard to Paul, Alex, Andy and Jeff. Visit our listopia page for some suggestions and while you're there vote or add some of your own favourites:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/14...

[Bill]

Jeff, I am about 400 pages into East of Eden. One of those books I should have read a long time ago. I think it means more now that I am a little older (45). I highly recommend.

[Nate]

Not to mirror too closely the comments of the other members, but I'm exceedingly pleased to find a coterie of fellow men's literature readers. As an author of men's fiction, I've found it a battle to track down my target audience. That said, I'm convinced that we're beginning to see a comeback brought on by the indy-publishing phenomenon: It's no longer up to the "gatekeepers" in the publishing community to decide which books hit the market (a decision dictated by what makes them the most money, which is invariably chick lit), and men are showing a revitalized interest in reading. I'm excited to see that this group is helping to facilitate that change.

[Jenn]

Hello, I just joined. Thank you for making a club for men, I've been looking for something like this. It does seem like most of the people here are women.

[Scott]

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Scott. I rather like the idea of this group though I'm not entirely sure I'll partake in the monthly book. Maybe once I finish off my current stack of to-reads.

My favorite authors include Dean Koontz, Tolkien, J.R.R. Arthur C. Clarke, Robin Cook, and J.K. Rowling. I love suspense, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and religious non-fiction.

I've always been a big reader and it makes me happy to see so many other people on this site, particularly men, engaging in reading on a large scale. It makes me smile.

[Scott]

Hi Everyone, Just joined. My wife has been trying to get me to read for years and about a month ago, I decided to start again. I love it. I like mysteries, suspense, books like the hunger games. Any good suggestions?

[Paul]

Hi Scott. Welcome.
I love this group. No drama, just dudes who like to read and share their reading experiences.

If you just started back up and liked the Hunger Games, then I'd suggest:
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Dystopia where child prodigy comes to try to save humanity.
Or
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
Mystery novel about a columnist and a talented hacker.

Both books are the start multi-book series if you like them. Enders Game is by far my favorite book.

[Scott]

Thanks Paul. Ill take a look at those.

[Chris, Founder]

I agree with Paul. Try Ender's Game. It is one of my favorites. You can read it before the movie comes out! :)

[Scott]

Thanks guys.

[Joseph-Daniel Peter Paul Abondius]

Hello everyone, I just joined this group and read about 100 books a year. I tend to read everything I can get my hands on. Favorite genre is mysteries thanks for letting me join

Joseph-Daniel Peter Paul Abondius Letendre
AKA joe

[Niel]

G'day all, new to the group and happy to have found it.
Recently got back into reading since my job sees me travelling and a plane ride goes a lot quicker with a good read.
Some great titles - The devil and the White City, Erik Larson. Outstanding blend of historical fiction. Larson also has a more recent title 'In the Garden of Beasts' set during Hitler's rise in Germany, yet to read that one. Dennis Lehane is great, Steig Larsson, Nick Hornby is a great men's author, dealing with issues such as fatherhood, relationships, sports.The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

[Chris, Founder]

Welcome to the group!

I always wanted to try Erik Larson books, just haven't yet! Have never read historical fiction at all, but those books do interest me!

Where exactly do you travel? What are your favorite places?

[Niel]

Thanks Chris. Larson also wrote an interesting book about a hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900 called Issac's Storm, that's well worth a look.
The company I work for has customers all over North America and my clients are quite varied. Chicago is always great to visit, though not in winter, California, Portland and Seattle are my fave cities. But being from Australia, I also like visiting lesser known towns - Omaha, Kansas City, Charlotte, Jackson, I really enjoy trying the different foods and beers each area has. I've been to about 34 of the 50 US states, Vermont, Maine and New Mexico are next on my list!

[Steve]

What up reading bros? Glad to find a group with some like minded guys. Sarasota, fl. 39 year old, married 2 kids checking in. Will take a look at your suggestions.

Here's some of mine
Night by elie Wiesel
Unbroken
Ready player one (if you grew up in the 80's you will enjoy)
Any Malcolm gladwell books
The stand

Currently reading "the foundation"

Thanks for creating this group!

[Scott]

Hello! Been on Goodreads for about a year and thought there should be more men on here...lo.and behold...there is. Glad to be a part of the group. I'm 43 and from Connecticut. Always enjoyed reading but have been reading more and more lately. My interests vary and I'll usually try reading any genre if the recommendation or review is good. Open minded and enjoy all kinds of people and books and I enjoy a good laugh that brings tears to your eyes.