Men Don't Read: The Unlikely Story of the Guys Book Club

by Andy Wolverton

Overview

Part memoir and part guide for starting your own book club, "Men Don't Read: The Unlikely Story of the Guys Book Club" tells the compelling tale of one library book group. It is an examination of why we read, the importance of talking about what we read, and the future of reading in our society, particularly for men and boys. During his early years working as a public librarian, Andy Wolverton heard the same sentence over and over: "Men don't read." He knew that statement was wrong and set about to disprove it, primarily by starting a book club for adult men and teenage guys. This is the story of a book club nobody thought would last, yet after more than 10 years, the group is still going strong.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781667840192
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	04/22/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andy Wolverton is a librarian at the Severna Park Library in Severna Park, Maryland, part of the Anne Arundel County Public Library system. He leads the Guys Book Club and The Great Movies, a monthly series in which he introduces, screens, and leads discussions of classic films. You can find his other writings in The Dark Pages: The Newsletter for Film Noir Lovers, and at his website, www.andywolverton.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

Introduction 5

Chapter 1 Getting Started 9

Chapter 2 The First Book 21

Chapter 3 The Second Book 33

Chapter 4 The Third Book 41

Chapter 5 What Now? 51

Chapter 6 Moneyball and Cormac McCarthy 57

Chapter 7 Patterns Emerge and a Request is Made 65

Chapter 8 Bill Bryson and the Long Tale 75

Chapter 9 Choosing the Books 85

Chapter 10 Learning the Guys 99

Chapter 11 Contacting Authors 111

Chapter 12 Women 119

Chapter 13 Problems, Challenges and Mistakes 133

Chapter 14 It's Not About Me 145

Chapter 15 Discussing Books Nobody Liked 151

Chapter 16 Saying Goodbye 155

Chapter 17 Moving Forward 161

Epilogue: The Pandemic and Beyond 171

Acknowledgments 181

Guys Book Club Reading List 183

About the Author 191