Must Read Books for Young Men

I was recently reflecting with some friends about what books were, in their opinion, essential reads for young men as I was trying to find a gift for a nephew soon to be 18. Drawing on their expertise in the publishing industry, they provided me with a wonderful selection which is fit for boys and men of all ages. I hope this might be food for thought for any gift you may also want to give.

The list is exhaustive, with protagonists which serve as fantastic examples for young men as well as many with strong female characters. This is the list:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Secret History by Donna Tartt

Brideshead revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

1984 by George Orwell

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Pleasure of Finding things out by Feynman

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Any Jane Austen

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

Any PG Wodehouse

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming

Shop for any of these books at our local favourite - John Sandoe books

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