Real men read books; spread the word

 I've noticed several stories recently about the decline of book reading, particularly among men. If I remember correctly, 80 percent of novels are purchased by women.

Here's a Brit lady speculating on the overall decline. I think she nails it:

We’re so used to consuming the world in snippets, in fact – tweets, posts, DMs, clips, episodes – that centering the mind on reading for more than a few minutes, even when you’ve made the conscious decision to do so, can be tough.

Then there's this guy, Shay Leighton of the Tough Guy Book Club, on men not reading: 

How the hell is reading, you know, picking up a book and learning new shit, become something that’s considered the opposite to toughness. I can assure you there is nothing tough about knowing less than the next guy. That’s why ignorance is considered a weakness.

An author on Twitter named Sean CW Korsgaard (@SCWKorsgaard) speculates regarding men that:

 This is another often ignored factor in why book sales are declining among men: Cover art. Publishing started swapping out flashy, splashy covers for generic ones, to cut costs, and because focus groups claimed it made books appeal more to female readers.

Guys are visual, right? They're on their phones looking at Instagram, watching YouTube, etc.

I decided to do a quick poll among my buddies and took maybe just the last 20 or so whom I've texted with. I asked them: What's the last book you read and approximately how many do you read in a year? 

Age-wise they run from 20 to 65, blue collar, white collar, gay and straight, all white. I was surprised that they were a way more literate bunch than I would've guessed, but still only read maybe 2-6 books per year on average. Some are in double digits, but not many.

The books include: 

"The War on Cops" by Heather MacDonald

Elon Musk biography

"The Fall" by Albert Camus

"Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"Destiny and Power" by Jon Meacham

"The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism" by Tim Alberta

"The Joy of Hate" by Greg Gutfeld

"Toxic Prey"" by John Sandford 

"The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" by Don Miguel Ruiz

"Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life" by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia

"The Smiling Country" by Elmer Kelton

"St Antony of the Desert" by St Athanasius

"Healthy Me, Healthy Us" by Dr. Les & Leslie Parrott

"Fight" by Craig Groeschel

"66 Years Under the Shadows of Custer" by Henry and Don Weibert

"The Situation Room" by George Stephanopoulus

"Long Horns Bring Culture" by August Schatz

"Hidden Order" by Brad Thor

"Make Me" by Lee Child

"Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10" by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson

"Killing the Legends" by Bill O'Reilly

What I notice about the list is there are no romance novels or what I'd even consider beach reads, except maybe Thor and Child; they are 95 percent male authors; some self-help and religion; some history; a lot of guns. There are a couple political books, but not the politico bios, not even the one "written" by our governor, despite 95 percent of the respondees being South Dakotans.

All in all, I like the list and am reminded to include more non-fiction in my reading. Though I think it's too late for much self-help dither.

So how do we increase male readership? Ideas?

Guys I know seem to do more YouTube videos and podcasts than other media, except for maybe Facebook, so we need the Joe Rogans of the world to push novels like Oprah did. We need more presence on Facebook. We need guys to talk about the books they read, make recommendations, lest the perception grows that real men don't eat quiche or read books.

I'll try and do my part. You do yours. Those little acorns will become oak trees, which we can then chop down and turn into books.

Assassinations and the theories about them

 My dad was a connoisseur of JFK assassination conspiracies, plots and information. He had a couple dozen 3-inch-thick books on the subject, including his own copy of the Warren Commission Report. He wasn't necessarily a conspiracy theorist, but the assassination of the popular president occurred when my dad was 23 years old, and I presume he was at least intrigued by the president, if not a fan, though a strident Republican. The event was certainly deeply felt.

One regret I have is that I never really discussed what his theory was after all the research he'd done. I think I picked up that he leaned toward "The Mob" theory, that they were mad at Jack Kennedy for broken promises and Bobby for prosecutions and did it as payback.

Anyway, with the recent attempt to kill the former president, the JFK assassination and theories have resurfaced, the most prominent of which is that the CIA had a hand in it.

Here, Rich Lowry of National Review does a good job of rehashing the evidence and throwing cold water on the conspiracy theorists. It's an interesting read.

Also, on the matter of the Trump assassination attempt, I don't understand the attempts out there to poo-poo it by people (including the FBI director) saying Trump may not have been struck by an actual bullet. 

Think that matters to war veterans who lost a limb or were killed due to being hit by shrapnel? "Oh suck it up buddy, it wasn't even a bullet!"

Somebody tried to kill him with real bullets that killed or wounded other people and whether it was a bullet that hit his ear or a piece of glass or plastic, it was an assassination attempt. It wasn't a mosquito bite. His reaction to being hit was still amazing. And trying to minimize the attempt on his life is a bunch of BS. 

Do better, people.

Happy birthday to me

 Tom Cruise and I celebrate our birthday on July 3; I'm the taller one. This is a big one - six decades. Turning 60 kind of bugs me. Fifty didn't, but somehow 60 is really crossing the Rubicon into "damn, you're officially old." Then again, I ran into an old friend last week who is in her 80s and she said: "What I wouldn't give to be 60 again!" It's all relative, I guess.

But I am learning there are benefits other than the senior discounts.

I can forget things and be excused because "my memory ain't what it used to be." Sorry I didn't make it to your party/retirement/funeral, I forgot. Though you have to be careful not to take it too far, lest you end up in the local memory care unit.

I can also ignore things people tell me. You wanted me to take out the garbage? "Sorry, you  must not have been speaking into my good ear."

And while this is nothing new for me, at least it's an excuse for telling people exactly what I think and now wifey can say: "Sorry, he's kind of lost his filter as he's gotten older."

It also means I care more about individuals than issues. I'm not going to march in a parade with you, stand outside a business with a placard, or boycott stuff. But if you're a friend of mine and gay, black, Jewish, legal, illegal, or all of the above, I still got your back in the barfight, for what it's worth. 

I'm more cognizant of what change I can affect. I can't bring peace to the Middle East or build a wall at the border or elect the next president, so I'm not going to worry about those things. I'm most concerned about things in a 10-mile radius of my home. Street light out? I'll call the appropriate individual. Dangerous intersection? Same. Creeps hanging out at the park or somebody's dog got loose, I can keep an eye out. But I'm too old to save the world, and aware enough now not to stress out about those things out of my control. You're on your own, Gen Z, this Boomer needs a nap.

I increasingly care less about big things and small people. I'm a list guy and have a list of people who I care what they think of me. It's gotten shorter the older I've gotten. It's in single digits now. Don't like me? Not my problem. My best friend is Ibu Profen.

Good news is my other list has gotten shorter too. That's the one titled: "People I won't pick up if they're stranded along the road in a blizzard." I like to think it's gotten shorter because I care less about whatever they did to get on the list and am more forgiving now, or they really were assholes and they froze to death because nobody else would pick them up either. 

I care more now about choosing a good book, listening to good music and eating food I like. I value time with my family more, walks with the dogs, whether the bird bath is full on hot days, taking care of myself.

I don't work out or eat healthier for vain reasons. I do it so I can hopefully do the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph for a longer period of time. So I can lift my granddaughter, stay mobile and chase wifey around the bedroom. Sure, there's no guarantee I won't get hit by a bus tomorrow or something in my DNA will zig when it should've zag, but for the things in my control I try to control them. I'm still not perfect, but should be by the time I reach 70. They say if you reach 60 the majority will reach 80.

Would've been nice to know at 20 the things I know now at 60, but such is life. You start out in diapers and end up in diapers. All the time in between is learning time, if you do it right.

So 60 it is - halfway to my goal!