The 100 Manliest Books

There is an amusingly edifying post over at The Art of Manliness about the blog's Top 100 Essential Books for the Manly Library. The authors not only provide an interesting commentary and meaningful quote from each member of this masculine century but incorporate often imaginative photos of each title.

Here's how they summarize Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray":

Packed with impeccable wit, clever one-liners and an excessive amount of egotistical vanity. At the very least, this book will show you the glory and the pitfalls of being the best looking chap around.

and now I don't have to read Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" with this succinct wrap up:

Written from the perspective of Lieutenant “Tenente” Frederic Henry it is a novel of epic manly proportions. As an American ambulance driver with the Italian army in WWI, Henry is injured by a mortar and while in the infirmary falls in love with his British nurse, Catherine Barkley. After healing and having impregnated nurse Barkley, Henry returns to his unit, only to narrowly escape fratricide. Henry goes AWOL and he and his bird flee to neutral Switzerland where they live a peaceful existence until Barkley dies during childbirth. In typical Hemingway fashion, he mourns her death by simply walking back to his hotel in the rain.