What are some essential books every man should read?

Kama Sutra

Completely agree with this list from murphy_architect except for a few edits:

Novels and Novellas
To Kill a Mockingbird (1969), Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye (1951), J.D. Salinger
Old Man and the Sea (1952), Earnest Hemingway
1984 (1948), George Orwell
Catch-22 (1961), Joseph Heller
Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer
Devil in the White City (2003), Erik Larson
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2009), William Kamkwamba
The Hunt for Red October (1984), Tom Clancy
One Hundred years of Solitude (1967), Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men, John Stienbeck
Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Animal Farm, George Orwell
The Odyssey, Homer
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane

A Separate Peace, John Knowles

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

Agree with the many above!

Also:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
All the Rich Dad / Poor Dad series of books

Agree with the many above!

Life Skills:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
All the Rich Dad / Poor Dad series of books

Really Good Reading:
All Creatures Great and Small series
Louis L'Amour's for old westerns
Rex Stout's - Nero Wolfe series

And of course, everything by Gary Larson, although that's not really reading ;)

The Alienist - Caleb Carr
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer (its a pretty short book)

In addition to Brian Hirschfeld's answers:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
Middlemarch by George Eliot

Just finished The Wild Blue which is about the men who flew B-24's in WWII. Highly entertaining book, with lots of great history, and an ending that is a eye opener.

I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth now, and cannot put it down. If you are into science, biology, history, or just curious about life, this book is just incredible.

I am really surprised no one has listed Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and I really like Less then Zero but it is definitely not for everyone.

I don't know about you guys, but a lot of the books on murphy_architect's list are books I read in high school as required reading so I never quite considered them any more essential than water is essential to your diet.

Here are my picks in no particular order:
The Crying of Lot 49 & Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
Human, All Too Human by Nietzsche
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

It about being well read and diversified. If you don't enjoy the subject matter, you can at least appreciate the writing.

Get yourself an account on goodreads.com and find like-minded people with great book recommendations.

Wait. How could I forget-

A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway.
-I don't even like his work but these really capture the essence of American Literature

Other notable semi-books:
Warfighting by the U.S. Marine Corps
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Cash by Johnny Cash
Principa Mathematica by Isaac Newton
Horror Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer

and maybe The Art of War by Sun Tzu
-especially if you're of the disposition that conflict is a very natural and human thing.

Oh I could go on all day...

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham

One of the best 'coming of age' book written for adults.

Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Campbell explains, in lay-mens terms, every thing you could want to know about myth and why we believe what we believe...it is a masterpiece. Many authors and screen writers cite it as the foundation for their entire canon of work. George Lucas amongst them.

"The Fountainhead" - Ayn Rand

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Arthur
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
1984 - George Orwell
It's Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong

"Texas" by James A. Michener

http://www.amazon.com/Texas-James-Michener/dp/0449210928

Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert

There are a lot of good books listed here, but the bottom line is that every man SHOULD read what interests him. You only get to read just so many books in your life, so don't waste your time on something that bores you just because someone else said it was "essential".

That said, you can't go wrong reading books that teach you something, whether it's a new skill, a new perspective on life, or a bit of history you didn't know before. Keeping that in mind...

. The Action Hero's Handbook Fun. Entertaining. A little cheesy. Just might save your life... but probably not. Still worth the $2.50.
. Under and Alone (by William Queen) is an incredible first-person narrative by an ATF agent who spent over 2 years undercover with the Mongols Motorcycle Club. Think Donnie Brasco (another good read) with bikers instead of mobsters. Doesn't get any more manly than that.
. The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu - I just started reading this and it grabbed me right from the foreword by Herman Wouk. It's sometimes alternately titled "Self-portrait of a Hero".
. The Devil in the White City (by Erik Larson) has been mentioned a few times here and is an excellent bit of historical non-fiction that reads like a novel.
. Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand) and 1984 (by George Orwell) are considered classic thought-provokers for good reason.
. The Art of War (by Sun Tzu)and The Prince (by Niccolo Machiavelli)are pretty much required reading if you have any plans of world domination.
. For pure non-educational entertainment, try any crime novel by Elmore Leonard or Robert Crais Elvis Cole series.
. Without Remorse (by Tom Clancy) If you're going to read any Clancy, read this. I always found his work dry and overly technical, but this is a brutal masterpiece.
. The Five Fingers (by James Hudson/Gayle rivers) If you can find this book, pick it up. It's labeled as fiction, but...

There are some really good ones here so I was not going to post this but b/c no one else has, my all time favorite book is The Alienist: A Novel by Caleb Carr

As a matter of fact I'm going to go read it now, thanks for reminding me.

Great to see so many people are still reading these days!

I might add a few of my own, however:

-The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Ben Franklin
-To Kill A Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
-A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson
-A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo
-The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

Most of all, read what interests you, or you won't get anything from it

Hemingway catches the passing moments and reminds you of the pleasure of sharing a drink with a stranger. Steinbeck paints incredible images and emotions with words, Dave Eggers is a smart and relatively new author who will surprise you. Kerouac is uninhibited and spontaneous, never edited his work, wrote like jazz artists play, cormac mcarthy is dark and beautiful stories, palahniuk is violent, sick, hilarious and intriguing. these are some fiction authors I love.

an autobiography that comes to mind is scar tissue by Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. His story is unbelievable.

Go back and read the titles forced down your throat in high school because they'll mean something entirely different now. Great topic and alot of great advice on here, i'll be picking up alot of books this weekend.

ken bruen's irish mystery series,anything by reed farrell coleman, AT THE END OF AN AGE by john lukacs,WHEN THINGS FALL APART by pema chodron.never, i repeat, never anything by tom clancy!!!

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Lays a foundation for understanding human history. Demolishes the grounds for racist theories of history. Everything about everyone in less than 500 pages.

"Guns, Germs, and Steel"http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Guns-Germs-and-Steel/Jared-Diamond/e/9780393317558/?itm=2&USRI=guns%2c+germs%2c+and+steel

Men Are Better Than Women by Dick Masterson

http://www.amazon.com/Men-Are-Better-Than-Women/dp/1416953817

I'm going to agree with many of the other posters and say that the Bible should be high on your list. Don't read it as a work of spiritual enlightenment, but rather think about how the stories therein affected civilization for thousands of years after. Don't just do 'Matthew, Mark, Luke and John", start 'in the beginning.'

Equally important foundation material is Greek and Roman Mythology. Without a good understanding of the major gods, their personalities and exploits, much of modern literature will be lost.

There is something to be said for 'The Epic of Gilgamesh,' it is the first novel written, quite possible ever. It also is much better once your out of high school

Now, moving away from Europe, Hindu mythology is at least as widely varied and creative as western, but has a rich history, and very clear developmental stages. Reading through a thousand or so years reveals quite well the impact that various outside influences had on the literature and mythology of the region.

Read some early Buddhist works as well, and see how they philosophically relate to Hindu mythology of the same time, and in fact the teachings of Christianity not long after.

I think by this point you have enough of a foundation for literature, so start on your history. You cannot understand a book well unless you understand both when it was set, but also when it was written. The era of the author can have a profound influence on the meaning of his text, Orwell's 1984 would mean something very different if it were written in 2002, or 1949.

Classics:
The Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Grahame;
The Jungle - Upton Sinclaire;
Candide - Voltaire;
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle;
Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky;
The Portrait of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde;
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner;
Moby Dick - Herman Melville;
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens;
Utopia - Sir Thomas More;
The Art of War - Sun Tzu;
Don Quixote - Cervantes;
The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli.
Note: There are simplified versions of all these titles, if the language is to eloquent or flowery for you.

Auto/biography:
Things I overheard while talking to myself - Alan Alda;
Screw it, Let's do it - Sir Richard Branson;
Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin;
True Compass - Edward Kennedy.

More Recently,
A brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking;
Brave New World - Aldous Huxely;
The Accidental Mind - David Linden;
The Self-Organizing Revolution - Ron Miller;
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick;
When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris.

Etc. Etc.

I think everyone should initially read:

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

That might open a persons mind to choose better books as a follow up.

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe http://www.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0312427565/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272820243&sr=8-2

Great book about what it takes to have guts. These were THE Men among men.

I think these are good books for everyman to read.

"S.A.S Survival Handbook"
http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Survival-Handbook-Revised-Situation/dp/0061733199/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272831994&sr=1-1

"Third Wave" by Alvin Toffler (non Fiction)
http://www.amazon.com/Third-Wave-Alvin-Toffler/dp/0553246984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272831967&sr=8-1

"A New Earth" by Ekhart Tolle
http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose-Selection/dp/0452289963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272832020&sr=1-1

"Lord of The Flies" (fiction)
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Flies-William-Golding/dp/B0017HSKU2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272832121&sr=1-2

"Brave New World"
http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272832166&sr=1-1

"The Watchmen" (Graphic Novel)
http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/1401219268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272832222&sr=1-1

Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy

Instant Karma: Mark Swartz

Lullaby: Chuck Palahniuk

Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand

Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions: Lisa Randall

Where The Sidewalk Ends: Shel Sliverstein

Five essential, if not cliche, books for the American man:

Catcher In The Rye
On The Road
Slaughterhouse Five
The Sun Also Rises
Leaves of Grass

SO many good ones listed here, and too many other's to list. One I would absolutely recommend however is "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Toole wrote the novel while a graduate student at Tulane and it was refused for publication. Eleven years after his death in 1969, by suicide, his mother found the manuscript, shopped it, it was published and went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

48 Laws of Power
33 Strategies of War
Saint, Surfer, CEO
Emergency: This book will save your life

Grendel -John Gardner
The Hero With a Thousand Faces -Joseph Campbell
The Sun Also Rises -Ernest Hemingway
The Great Gatsby -F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Devil in The White City -Erik Larson
Real Money -James Cramer

Might be a lower reading level. But one very memorable book from middle school that i read was about the holocaust.

Night- Elie Weisel

So many great books have been named here. Thank you. I'm sure the list will continue. I'd like to add another. My first read of this book was way back in secondary school (many have probably read it), and I always come back to it again. Bernard Malamud's Magic Barrel

One of the best books I've ever read was "Flags of our Fathers". This is the book that the movie was based on, I never saw the movie because I didn't want it to ruin the great experience I had reading the book.

The Art of Manliness has a pretty comprehensive guide to books all men should read. They have a top 50 fiction adventure, top 50 non-fiction adventure & general top 100. These lists contain many great classics and some books you may not have heard of. And I also reccomend their book itself.

The Art of Manliness:
http://artofmanliness.com/thebook/

General:
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/

Fiction:
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/02/the-essential-man%e2%80%99s-library-adventure-edition-part-one-fiction/

Non-Fiction:
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/29/50-non-fiction-adventure-books/

Vintage Jesus
The Cross Centered Life

Just a couple to start with.

Vintage Jesus
http://relit.org/vintagejesus/
The Cross Centered Life
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590520459

Just a couple to start with.

I ran into a pretty good list from the guys at "The Art of Manliness" blog which can be found at:

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/

I hope they serve beer in hell and 48 Laws of power

While 1984 and Animal Farm are the mainstream Orwell "must-reads," if you want some Orwell that is brutally honest and a book that will challenge you, then read Homage to Catalonia about his experience in the Spanish Civil War. On the other end of the spectrum, a great light read is "A Good Walk Spoiled," by John Feinstein, one of the greatest modern sports writers.

These are both true stories

"Papillon" by Henri Charriere - Best prison escape book ever

"The Enchanted Vagabonds" by Dana Lamb - Best adventure book ever

Top 5 High Impact

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Getting Things Done - David Allen
Letters from a Stoic - Seneca
Getting Real - 37signals
Zen Mind Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki

Sun Tzu's Art of War
Siddartha by Herman Hesse
A Fighter's Heart by Sam Sheridan
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Bible

Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

The Ultimate Man's Survival Guide-this book contains a list of all necessary reading material

The River of Doubt(about Theodore Roosevelt

-Harrison Burgeron, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
-Atlas Shrugged, Ayan Rand
-Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
-The Odyssey, Homer
-A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
-The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass

Here are a couple I haven't seen listed that were important in my intellectual development (such as it is).

The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek

I have to second Ryan on his recommendation of Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron".

I must also recommend Game Of Thrones and its sequels by George Martin. The upcoming HBO version will probably be a worthy adaptation, but the books are a brutal, gut-wrenching pop-lit pleasure that should not be missed. It puts most other books in the fantasy genre to shame.

The Elements of Style

Every man should know how to write.

All the Best,

--BB

I didn't see two of my favorite books, so I thought I'd drop a line.

A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
American Pastoral by Philip Roth

I also am a big fan of David Sedaris books, always entertaining.

Stephen King's Dark Tower Series is probably up there with my favorite series of all time.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald or really anything by him.

and Esquire has a great list: Esquire

Post Office and Women by Charles Bukowski
Naked Lunch and Junky by William S. Burroughs

I see On the road by Kerouac listed a lot, but the Dharma Bums is better in my opinion.

blood meridian and the border trilogy- cormac mccarthy.

will change your life

If you want to read to learn something and not be entertained here are some great books that will make you think as well.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn( one of the greatest Historians and activist of our time)

On Becoming a Leader - Warren Bennis

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

and the one fiction I will suggest is Da Vinci Code

The Bro Code, and A Bro On The Go. Both by Barney Stinson (and the writers of How I met Your Mother)

Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life by Maxwell Maltz - Fascinating study by a plastic surgeon on why how we create self image and perceive things the way we do, and how you can use that information to your advantage.

AND

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

Just to name a couple.

Et Tu, Babe by Mark Leyner

A Pirate Looks At 50- Jimmy Buffett

Anything-Hunter S. Thompson

Plain and simple, some of the best books of all time for men of any age to read, and most to enjoy in the utmost, are Ian Flemmings original James Bond novels. There are about twenty of these superb espionage novels, and each one could easily be read in a weekend, and their size also makes them ideal for travel, camping, or just throwing in the glove box of your car, just in case... James Bond Novels

Just picked up World War Z by Max Brooks - Excellent book, very unique. Also great to know what to do when the living dead start roaming the earth.

There have been many fine recommendations already, but I'd like to add mine --some of which were already on here, but others are new:

Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler)
1984/Animal Farm (George Orwell)
The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)

Most of these books are recommended because they require you to think about why you agree/disagree; they should help you clarify what you think and why.

For American literature:

Babbit (Sinclair Lewis)
Moby Dick (Melville)
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemmingway)
Creation (Gore Vidal) (I don't like his politics or world view, but he can really write)
Catch-22/Somethig Happened ( Joseph Heller)

World literature (there is nothing about human nature not covered by these books):

Don Quixote (Cervantes)
The Prince (Machiavelli)
Candide (Voltaire)
Anna Karanina (Tolstoy)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
Les Miserables (Hugo)
Silas Marner (George Elliot)
Dead Souls (Gogol)
The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene)
Heart of Darkness/Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad)
Disgrace (Coetzee)
Koba the Dread (Martin Amis)

In addition, get a good book on Greek and Roman mythology, and if you're ambitious, read a Greek play. The Greeks sure knew about human nature.

Finally, read a good survey of world history. Two of my favorites are by Susan Bauer: A History of the Ancient World; A History of the Medieval World. Bauer does an excellent job of making the connections between events as well as pointing out the significant technological advances behind much of history.

Fiction: The Plague by Albert Camus, probably one of the best books you've never read. Hope in the face of death and faith in humanity are themes.

Nonfiction: "The Good War" by Studs Terkel, his interviews with ordinary people remembering life during World War II 40 years later are very touching.

Everything off of an advanced high school reading list. Look for an AP English IV reading list, these books are pretty much staples that everyone needs to know. Also, just reading a book doesn't mean anything. Understanding the literature is way more important. Canterbury Tales has been suggested more than once here but without any research into medieval literature I think very few of the men here will understand what the book is about. Same goes for Wilde and Swift. The information the book provides is much more important than reading a laundry list of books (which is what I see here). Then, reading books like Principia comes off as extremely pretentious: you study the Principia, because it isn't a book for reading. Finally, without knowing the history to put these books into perspective, nothing is gained.

Avoid contemporary pop-fiction at all costs, except when on holiday.
If you are American, read American authors (or whatever country you hail from, read those authors).
Find a topic that interests you, and read everything you can about it from ALL perspectives.
You'll find that the more you read about history, the more you'll want to delve into its specificities, so start with general history and go on from there.
Avoid extreme liberalism or conservatism.
You should have already read your high school reading list, this is no place to list books that most of the intelligent people in this country read when they were 12-16.
Read what you LIKE, if you can't get through Tolstoy, then don't read it, you will read books you like much faster.

Lastly, JUST READ. The written word is the best way for humans to communicate complete thoughts. Sound and image are processed by our brains emotionally and allow their creators to manipulate the thoughts and conclusions of the audience, only by reading can we process things with logic.

"Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey
"War" by Sebastian Junger
"In Defense of Women" by H.L. Mencken
"Finite and Infinite Games" by James P. Carse
"Religious Literacy" by Stephen Prothero
"American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" by Joseph J. Ellis
"Carnage and Culture" by Victor Davis Hanson
"The Songs of a Sourdough" by Robert Service
"Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays" by David Sedaris
"The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales" by Rudyard Kipling
"Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein
"The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe
"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs
"The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton
Lastly, the books of Ecclesiastes and Revelations in the Bible.

This list includes something for everyone. Enjoy.

Shogun (James Clavell)
Papillon (Henry Charriere)
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson)

A Fan's Notes

By Frederick Exley

I think every man should read at least some of the books on an "essential books for women" list. Here's a good one from "Jezebel": http://jezebel.com/5053732/75-books-every-woman-should-read-the-complete-list

A considerable number of the books listed I've heard of and I've read a good few also, however a couple of books I don't recall seeing that I would recommend include:

The Day of the Jackal (Fred Forsyth)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Colonel Sun (Robert Markham (Kingsley Amis))
Espedair Street & Complicity (Iain Banks)
A Scandal in Belgravia (Robert Barnard)

Not necessarily 'classics', but brilliant nevertheless.

this is a list of classic eastern religious texts (the first four), and two newer, but really, really useful self help books.

bhagavad gita
tao te ching
words of my perfect teacher
zen mind, beginners mind
prometheus rising
way of the superior man

how about:

The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay
Next: The Future Just Happened by Michael Lewis
War All the Time by Charles Bukowski

A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov

If you're serious about deeply understanding how nature works, why life is the way it is, why we do what we do, then there is but one book to read: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

The Stranger by Camus <-- thought provoking semi life changing if your into the whole existentialism thing

Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Fortress of Solitude
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Trinity
The Ticking is the Bomb
Ishmael

Far Tortuga
Galapagos

Tuesdays with Morrie. I don't care what anyone else says. It is filled with life lessons. You will learn a lot about not taking advantage of everyday life.

Aside from the classics (catcher in the rye, of mice and men, to kill a mockingbird, lord of the flies) some more modern books which i think are great MAN books are Adventures of Kavalier and Klay (Michael Chabon), The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho), Iron John: A Book About Men (Robert Bly) and The Autobiography of Malcom X. i was really surprised by how amazing i thought the malcom x book was. really puts his whole cause in perspective.

-Lord of the Rings
-The Sillamrillion
-The Hornblower Books
-Adrift (great survival story)
-The Ninja Handbook (for expected ninja attacks)
-Cry the Beloved country

Unbuttoned. A romp through 1960's america.

the black prince.

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, alot of important life lessons in there!

The Four Hour Work Week will change your life forever. I would also suggest reading The Secret. Although it is a little far-fetched, the message in the book is clear, be a positive person! Try Who Moved My Cheese? also, it's a quick read, but definitely one of the best. And last but not least, The Alchemist.

The absolute #1 book teaching you what becoming or being a man is all about. Wild at Heart

The Average American Male

by Chad Kultgen.

Such an awesome book about the lives of three college students and their relationships.

One more;
The Power of One- Bryce Courtenay

@Noah Gampe: I totally agree with you, "The Average American Male" is definitely essential reading for all men, but I think you're confused.

AAM is about one man and his girlfriends, but Chad Kultgen's follow up novel, "The Lie," which isn't as good but IS still pretty good, is about the 3 students and their (kinda eff'd up) lives.

Either way, "The Average American Male" by Chad Kultgen is a must read. It will do one of two things: make you feel really good about yourself, or at least let you know you're not alone.

http://www.amazon.com/Average-American-Male-Novel/dp/0061231673

I see that the "best answer so far" is the Bible and that it has been suggested by a few individuals. I feel that no matter what your religion (or lack thereof), you would have a much more well-rounded world view if you took the time to read the books of other religious philosophies as well:

the Bible - Judaism (Old Testament)/Christianity
the Koran - Islam
Vedas, Mantras, Agamas, Puranas, and Stotras - Hinduism
Tipitaka and the Tibetan Book of the Dead - Buddhism
Tao te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Lie Zi - Daoism (Taoism)

That covers the 6 most common world religions pretty thoroughly. Reading all of those texts would probably take years, so I don't literally think you should read them all, but maybe pick one or two and look into them. Get a non-Judeo/Christian view of the world, at least for compare/contrast purposes.

Also for your consideration:

The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The Atheist Manifesto - Michel Onfray

I see that the "best answer so far" is the Bible and that it has been suggested by a few individuals. I feel that no matter what your religion (or lack thereof), you would have a much more well-rounded world view if you took the time to read the books of other religious philosophies as well:

the Bible - Judaism (Old Testament)/Christianity
the Koran - Islam
Vedas, Mantras, Agamas, Puranas, and Stotras - Hinduism
Tipitaka and the Tibetan Book of the Dead - Buddhism
Tao te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Lie Zi - Daoism (Taoism)

That covers the 6 most common world religions pretty thoroughly. Reading all of those texts would probably take years, so I don't literally think you should read them all, but maybe pick one or two and look into them. Get a non-Judeo/Christian view of the world, at least for compare/contrast purposes.

Also for your consideration:

The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The Atheist Manifesto - Michel Onfray

I'd add "James Joyce's Ulysses"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/142093449X?ie=UTF8&tag=joncamfield-20 - the core story is both a coming-of-manhood story and an older man facing a potential affair by his wife. Actually pretty intense. I'd recommend tacking on "Ulysses Annotated"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520067452?ie=UTF8&tag=joncamfield-20 . Not easy reading, but massive points for mad literary skillz.

How to Mow the Lawn (The Lost Art of Being a Man) by Sam Martin. Good coffee table book.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Mow-Lawn-Sam-Martin/dp/0525947310

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Schott's Original Miscellany

"God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" by Christopher Hitchens

Let There Be Light and 12 Doors Knocking are two great books you may want to read. Let There Be Light

Freakonomics

I'll take the newer / more pop-culture angle...

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Chuck Klosterman
Eating the Dinosaur Chuck Klosterman
High Fidelity Nick Hornby
Naked Pictures of Famous People Jon Stewart
Born Standing Up Steve Martin
Moneyball Michael Lewis
A Love Supreme the Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album Ashley Kahn
The Macrophenominal Pro Basketball Almanac Free Darko

Politics:

The Education of Ronald Regan Thomas W. Evans
Applied Economics Thomas Sowell
Founding Brothers Joseph J. Ellis

And a classic I did not see mentioned:

Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

In my opinion there are a few that have been mentioned and some that haven't that you should read. My list of essential books you should read are:
1. The Iliad - Homer
2. The Odyssey - Homer
3. The Lord of The Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
4. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
5. The Tain (Bo Cuailnge) - Unknown
6. Druss the Legend - David Gemmell
7. White Wolf - David Gemmell
8. Sword in the Storm - David Gemmell

Iron John by Robert Bly

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Anything by Cormac McCarthy is fantastic. He writes viscerally and is an amazing story teller. Also City of Thieves by David Benioff. Great and unique story set in WWII about a boy growing up.

Im reading this book right now, it's pretty good See What I'm Saying

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the inevitability of society. (Edward Gibbon) http://www.amazon.com/History-Decline-Empire-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140437649

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut to understand dealing with travesty. Quite frankly he's one of the funniest men ever to live. True story: The day I said, "If there was one man alive I would want to meet, it would be Kurt Vonnegut" he died. If you understand his humor, then the aforementioned sentence is priceless. (Dark Humor)
http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0440180295

Anything by Tom Robbins for imagination and fantasy. (I personally suggest Jitterbug Perfume, my favorite book of all and the only book I've ever re-read [apart from a, wouldn't you know, Kurt Vonnegut book])
http://www.amazon.com/Jitterbug-Perfume-Tom-Robbins/dp/0553348981

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt because what can be more inspirational than reading a biography of a tenacious smashing bastard?http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Modern-Library-Paperbacks/dp/0375756787

The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer because epic poetry is well.... epic.http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Odyssey-Homer/dp/0147712556

Gunna go with Tucker Max as one to read

How Things Really Work by Billy Hobby
The Art Of War
The Bible

art of war
illiad/odyssey
i hope they serve beer in hell

these are my favorite man type books...
alot of the ones mentioned already were ones i see no meaning in since we were forced to read them back in highschool.

The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

"Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?" And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God."

I think you guys have misread the thread title.
Allow me to Clarify.

What are some ESSENTIAL books every 'MAN' should read.

Emphasis on essential..

The Game by Neil Strauss.
And once you've finished that, Read
Magic Bullet by Nick Savoy..

You all need to Redefine your definition of 'Essential'..

"The Shack"- great book, regardless of if you have a relationship with God or not! Awesome!

1984-George Orwell
Robinson Crusoe-Daniel Defoe
Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand
To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
Animal Farm-George Orwell

Not sure if these would be essential 'man' books, but they're my favorites and all valuable in one way or another.

Man's Search for Meaning, Victor E. Frankyl

Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean
Homicide, David Simon
The Terrible Hours, Peter Maas
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

These are essential readings for any man.

Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean
Homicide, David Simon
The Terrible Hours, Peter Maas
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

These are essential readings for any man.