With apologies to those of the female persuasion

I was listening to an interview with some educators this morning about young persons of the male persuasion and reading. As in, young brains are different male/female (they mature differently until about the age of 22 in females, 30 in males [I think those were the correct average ages], whence they’re pretty much identical). So, the things that appeal to young males and females in the book department will be different. Unfortunately, assigned reading, even through college, tends to be more female-oriented. One good example given was the assigning of Toni Morrison, an indisputably important American author who won the Nobel prize, is much more frequent than the assigning of Ernest Hemingway, an indisputably important American author who won the Nobel prize. Yet it’s pretty easy to predict that young males will respond more viscerally to the latter than the former. If you’re specifically talking about African-American themes, another example would be Beloved vs. Invisible Man; the latter book is just more up the young male alley brain-developmentwise, and if you are not teaching Morrison per se but teaching about the Black American experience to young males, you’d probably be better off with the latter book.

And I’m not asking you to subscribe to stereotypes here, just to generalities. Hell, I always liked Jane Austen, but that’s just me (and maybe you too, fella—I’m not the only exception to the rule). I think the first page of P&P is hilarious; if you read it and don’t think it’s hilarious, and it’s assigned to you in a class, well then, you’re pretty much doomed for the next couple of hundred pages. All guys are not all one way, but there is no question that objectively young males generally respond to books differently than young females, and that they generally respond positively/negatively to specific books differently. And the end result is depressing; just look at the numbers. Most males are lost to reading by their adulthood. I’ve been in publishing my entire life; most of the books published in America are for women because women read more than men. That’s the way of the world. The numbers are indisputable.

Once upon a time I felt I had a mission to rip out the brains of the debaters who crossed my path, wash them thoroughly, and replace them filled with the stuff I thought they should be filled with. Unfortunately, some of my debaters felt (rightly) otherwise, and my total brainwashing program languished. I concentrated instead on debate stuff, which was more than enough to fill the empty hours (although I would define debate stuff as including leaving a tip plus tax, removing your hat while you’re at the dinner table unless you have a note from your cleric explaining otherwise, and turning off your cell phone the moment you are within a hundred yards of me). Still, I have added the odd non-debate book to the Hen Hud reading list, yet I can’t say that I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the whiteness of the whale with the male Sailors over the years. Not since the earliest days, actually. Voracious male readers who are on the team will usually focus their voracity on books they believe will relate to the activity. They’ll read Kant till the cows come home, but if it’s not debate-related, they sniff at it and back away slowly, until, presumably, they bump into Nietzsche from the rear and they’re ready to go on again. The well-rounded (and perhaps well-grounded) Sailor becomes progressively more elusive. One of the reasons I ask for readings from a favorite book from novices, in addition to simply evaluating presentation style, is to see what books they choose. Some of the choices over the years have been, well, less than profound, but always interesting.

Nevertheless, we unquestionably do have plenty of avid young male minds at the ready. And most of them are staring at the Prides and Prejudices of life with a blank expression, and rather than ruin them for all eternity by having them read books too soon (they’ll love P&P 20 years from now), or maybe more precisely, since we can’t sidetrack all the P&Ps of life, at least we can augment them with something more calculated toward young male readers, something that might connect before it’s too late and all the connections are permanently switched off. To that end, I propose my own “Guy’s Reading List: Books smart young males of the forensician persuasion will probably like, to be enjoyed for their own benefit because reading is a really good thing, even better than going to the movies because it’s cheaper, the experience lasts longer and you can take it with you anywhere, and even though you can’t go there with a girl it will give you something to talk to girls about when the time comes to actually do said talking.”

Is that too long a name? Well, Guy’s Reading List is probably good enough (despite the unfortunate acronym). So, I start it now. I will keep it live at the right, and I welcome suggestions for additions. Since I have no idea what books are on any particular curriculum--primary, secondary or college level--I may be redundant with a selection or two, but there’s worse things in life. My initial picks?

Autobiography of Malcolm X
Ragtime
Invisible Man (Ellison, not Wells)
Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange
The Maltese Falcon

Care to suggest any others?