16 books every man should read, according to GQ editors
GLADYS LAI
23 AUG 2023
From Kenzaburō Oē’s A Personal Matter to Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, three GQ editors recommend the books that you should read in your lifetime.
1/17
All products featured on GQ are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
You know the kind of books we’re talking about, don’t you—the ones that crawl under your skin and shake you, that flood you with wonder and terror, that make the familiar unfamiliar, and give old truths new faces. There are, to be sure, many great novels in the world, but rare is the book that presses down on the heart, and rewires the brain.
It’s the feeling you chase every time you open a novel, which is why here, at GQ, we’ve decided to round up the books that accomplished just that. Some, like A. A. Gill’s Pour me and Kenzaburō Oē’s A Personal Matter, probe addiction and guilt; others, like The Brothers Karamazov and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, brush up against spirituality and satisfaction. All, however, take a scalpel to the question of what it means to be human.
Below, three GQ editors sound off on the list of books every man should read.
The 16 best books for men, according to GQ
2/17
Men Without Women, Haruki Murakami
“You might be more familiar with Haruki Murakami’s novels—Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, IQ84—but it’s perhaps in his short stories that his mastery of prose shines. In Men Without Women, you’ll find seven vignettes of, well, men without women: a widower who befriends his dead wife’s lover, a plastic surgeon emaciated by heartbreak, an agoraphobic regaled with stories of break-ins and lampreys, a bar-owner who runs away from himself. There’s a surreal flavour to each of Murakami’s realities, but it makes his portraits of life all the more indelible. And at the end of the collection, you’re left with an overwhelming feeling, like a dream you can’t quite remember: some amalgam of loneliness, despair, confusion, potentiality.”
“Here’s one of the many quotes from Men Without Women I’ve committed to memory. ‘The proposition that we can look into another person’s heart with perfect clarity strikes me as a fool’s game,” says Takatsuki in Drive My Car. “All it can do is cause us pain. Examining your own heart, however, is another matter… So in the end maybe that’s the challenge: to look inside your own heart as perceptively and seriously as you can, and to make peace with what you find there. If we hope to truly see another person, we have to start by looking within ourselves.’ Yeah, I know. Just do yourself a favour and grab a copy.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami, $20.35 from Booktopia
3/17
All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
“When Cormac McCarthy passed away in 2023 he left behind a legacy as one of the greatest writers in modern history. Throughout a career of quiet determination, McCarthy chronicled the despair, desperation and dearths of humanity using a canvas of the American West. His most famous work, the violent No Country For Old Men is also essential, but for me, the quieter, more romantic journey of 16-year-old John Grady Cole tells us about how the world works better. It follows Cole as he discovers the violence, but also the life present along the border of Texas and Mexico.” —Charlie Calver, head of brand
SHOP NOW: All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, $18.25 from Booktopia
4/17
Pour Me, A.A. Gill
“Australia has a troubling relationship with plonk. Something we grow up surrounded by is boozing, and drinking of every nature. For many, it’s controlled and social, but for some, it can very easily spiral beyond control. In this lamenting and honest memoir from one of my favourite writers, A.A Gill speaks about finding sobriety, and the honest truths about a troubling relationship with alcohol, parallels of which I am sure you will see in your circles too. Gill’s writing brings an admired humanity into all who cross his path on his journey, and help you understand that while improving the self is a solo journey by definition, it is the stories and people that you encounter on the way that will shape the final outcome. A read that will help redefine how you interact with your favourite liquid.” —Will Lennox, content producer
SHOP NOW: Pour Me by A.A. Gill, $21.75 from Booktopia
5/17
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
“Strange, perhaps, that the book that’s made me laugh out loud the most is an absurdist tale of a pilot set in World War II—but trust me when I say that 1) it’s an absolute riot, and 2) it’s totally not what you’re expecting from a classic. You’ll meet a host of eccentric characters—the disillusioned Yossarian, our hospital-loving protagonist, culinary genius Milo Minderbinder, the Henry Fonda-doppelgänger Major Major Major Major, “born too late and too mediocre”. You’ll follow them through war; you’ll follow them through tragedy. But all the while, you’ll laugh—with them, at them, and above all, at circumstance and bureaucracy, those ludicrous, risible and often incomprehensible governors of human life.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, $14.99 from Amazon
6/17
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
“I borrowed The Secret History from my local library and resolved to read a couple of chapters over dinner, but ended up racing through the entire novel and not sleeping a wink. That’s how good Donna Tartt is: she grips you by the shoulders with the very first line and refuses to let you go. The Secret History begins with a murder, before it takes you back in time; the first half charts the events leading up to the crime, while the second explores the aftermath. This is the campus novel that started it all: six students; a Classics professor; intrigue, occult ritual and all the elements of a Greek tragedy. A book that will leave you breathless, and remind you of just how exhilarating reading can be.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: The Secret History by Donna Tartt, $21.75 from Booktopia
7/17
Just Kids, Patti Smith
“A book recommended to me by my colleague Charlie when I first started out here. Just Kids tells the gripping story of the New York City that everyone has wanted to visit once in their life. And while it arrives in our fantasies terrifically hyperbolised, Just Kids paints the vision of the city as it truly was, and arguably remains today. Framed by the relationship between Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it is not intentionally lacerating in its depiction of the era, but certainly unflinching in its presentation of their world. United by their art and creativity, who hasn’t wanted to move to the Big Apple in search of a freedom like this.” —Will Lennox, content producer
SHOP NOW: Just Kids by Patti Smith, $21.75 from Booktopia
8/17
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
“At the heart of The Brothers Karamazov is a riddle, one Dostoevsky poses in the fifth chapter and spends the rest of the novel trying to solve: how do we reconcile the breadth of human suffering with the existence of something divine? As the novel progresses, and we come to know the three titular brothers, it becomes clear that Dostoevsky’s answer lies in kindness, unwavering. In the face of Dmitri’s fiery passion and Ivan’s rationalism, the third brother, Alexei, embodies compassion. When one of the brothers is accused of a crime, the pace speeds up. But for me, the novel’s best moments are when it pauses, breathes, and takes stock of what it means to be human.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, $13.85 from Amazon
9/17
The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
“Almost a decade after Tom Wolfe perfected literary nonfiction with his depiction of the space race in The Right Stuff, the legendary writer and journalist decided to try his hand at writing his version of “the great American novel”. The result was The Bonfire of the Vanities, a book that perfectly captures the excess, paranoia and social landscape of 1980s NYC. If you take one thing away from this book, it should be that no one is infallible and sure, you might have more experience as you get older, but it’s very rare that anyone actually knows what the hell they are doing.” —Charlie Calver, head of brand
SHOP NOW: The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, $18.25 from Booktopia
10/17
Dune, Frank Herbert
“If you’re someone who religiously avoids sci-fi, read Dune. Yes, it’s a formidable size—the kind of brick-sized book you’ll feel insufferable carrying around—but I promise you, it’s worth its weight in gold, and will reframe the genre as you know it. You’re probably already familiar with the storyline, recently popularised by Denis Villeneuve’s (magnificent) film adaptation, but the book spins ideas together with a detail and complexity that can’t be achieved on-screen. Herbert uses the structure of a hero’s journey to touch on feudalism, ecology, religion and colonialism; prophecy casts its shadow on every page. Herbert’s universe is vast, but feels intensely real. This is a novel that will leave you in awe of the human imagination, and the worlds that can be dreamt up by a single mind.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: Dune by Frank Herbert, $20.35 from Booktopia
11/17
A Personal Matter, Kenzaburō Oē
“The opening lines of Kenzaburō Oē’s A Personal Matter are a revelation. There are many great books, but few that seem to reinvent language as you know it. This is one of those. A semi-autobiographical novel, A Personal Matter follows 27-year-old protagonist Bird as he contends with the birth of his disabled son. With every page, he sinks deeper into a quagmire of shame and self-loathing; you’re privy to his every thought, many of which will disgust you, but disgust Bird more. But despite the heaviness of its subject matter, the book isn’t harrowing. Oē’s metaphors, redolent of the Modernist greats, lend beauty to suffering. The conclusion will leave you whole, and with the taste of this line on your tongue: ‘Reality compels you to live properly.’” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Oē, $22.40 from Booktopia
12/17
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
“I’ll give you a short pitch for a short book: when I first read this 127-page Pulitzer Prize winner, I found it beautiful and calming. The second time I read it, it almost brought me to tears. You’ll understand the meaning of life better after you’ve read this.” —Charlie Calver, head of brand
SHOP NOW: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, $18.25 from Booktopia
13/17
If This Is a Man, Primo Levi
“Don’t be fooled by the size of it—Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man is something you’ll chew slowly, and take even longer to digest. A Holocaust memoir, Levi reflects on history’s darkest moments, humanity’s darkest faces, and manages, somehow, to find the heart beneath it all. Free of bitterness, Levi instead grieves, and hopes. ‘Everyone dreamed past and future dreams,’ he says at one point in his memoir, ‘... of slavery and redemption, of improbable paradises, of equally mythical and improbable enemies; cosmic enemies, perverse and subtle, who pervade everything like the air.’” No book better demonstrates the lessons we can all learn from the atrocities past generations have committed, and suffered.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: If This Is a Man by Primo Levi, $19.25 from Amazon
14/17
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
“Granted, a Shakespearean tragedy isn’t something you skim, but Hamlet is one of those plays you should read in your lifetime. Once you get used to the old English—and get into that sick iambic pentameter—you’ll find that Hamlet is, at its core, a very simple and necessary tale, about a young man, grappling with his place in the world. There is terror for him in action, terror for him in thought. What comes after death, he asks, and what does death make of us? The ending will edify and devastate all at once. A necessary addition to your bookshelf.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, $9.50 from Booktopia
15/17
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
“Sports books are a tricky field. In many cases, they’re written by extraordinary athletes with natural talent that far surpasses the abilities us readers could ever achieve. And while those novels provide valuable inspiration for our own athletic pursuits or otherwise, finding this book about running from just a regular runner was just what I needed to get into the sport that has changed my life for the better. Murakami is far better known for his fiction books, but this honest memoir about how he found, and subsequently became engrossed in the sport of running is just as good. It’s honest about the difficulties in finding satisfaction in a new pursuit, but as anyone who has stuck by something, the rewards of the return are painted just as pleasingly. An essential read for anyone interested in running, but also wider active pursuits.” —Will Lennox, content producer
SHOP NOW: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, $20.35 from Booktopia
16/17
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
“I first read On The Road by Jack Kerouac when I was about 15 and it grabbed my attention immediately. Written over a three-week benzedrine and caffeine-fuelled frenzy on one continuous scroll, Kerouac tells a stream-of-consciousness story of his travels across America in the heart of the 1950s beat poet revolution. At its core, the book is a testament to living life to its fullest and the dangers that can come with that. Written 80 years ago, there are some elements of the book that haven’t aged well, but that doesn’t discount the energy rippling off every page. A must-read that will turn you into a traveller and a reader overnight.” —Charlie Calver, head of brand
SHOP NOW: On The Road by Jack Kerouac, $20.35 from Booktopia
17/17
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
“In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald scratches at the glitter of the American Dream to reveal the dishonesty and superficiality that simmers underneath. Each character wears a mask, and it is these fronts Fitzgerald unravels over the course of the novel: that of Gatsby, the self-made man, of Daisy, the golden socialite, of Nick, our narrator, who proclaims himself honest but isn’t quite so. A melancholic portrait of human folly set in the Jazz Age, and rendered by Fitzgerald in rich, gorgeous prose—this is a book that lingers long after the final line.” —Gladys Lai, content editor
SHOP NOW: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, $14.25 from Booktopia
