The claim that boys do not read is mostly a claim about what they are handed. Give a fourteen-year-old a novel about feelings in a suburban high school and he will put it down. Give him a book in which men cross an ocean in an open boat, and he will read it under the covers with a flashlight. Boys read what rewards them, and what rewards them is danger, competence, loyalty, and a question worth answering about how a man should act.
This list is built on that observation. It is not a canon and it is not complete. It is a set of books that have reliably held teenage boys for generations, arranged roughly by age, with a few notes on how to use them.
Younger teens, roughly 12 to 14
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson. Still the best adventure story in English, and a surprisingly serious study of charm and treachery in the person of Long John Silver.
The Call of the Wild, Jack London. Short, brutal, and unforgettable. A good first book for a boy who claims not to like reading.
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen. A thirteen-year-old alone in the Canadian wilderness with a hatchet. Boys who have camped read it differently from boys who have not.
Kim, Rudyard Kipling. Harder than the others, richer than any of them. A boy’s education in the great game of India, and one of the finest portraits of a boy ever written.
The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, followed by The Lord of the Rings when he is ready. Courage in small people, and the best account in modern literature of what it costs to carry a burden to the end.
The Odyssey, Homer, in a good modern translation read aloud. Telemachus is a boy searching for his father and learning to become a man in the process, which is why it belongs here. We have written about it in “The Odyssey: Archetypal Lessons in Masculinity.”
Middle teens, roughly 14 to 16
Endurance, Alfred Lansing. The true story of Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, in which every man survived two years of the worst conditions on earth because of one man’s leadership. Probably the single most useful book on this list.
Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose. Meriwether Lewis and the expedition that gave our academy its name. Read it alongside our essay “So Hard to Die.”
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara. Gettysburg from inside the heads of the men who fought it. Boys who read it want to stand on the ground afterward, which is a reasonable thing to arrange.
Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana. A Harvard student ships out as a common sailor in the 1830s and reports what he sees. Work, weather, and justice on a ship.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. A young man makes himself, by method and by will, in a new country. Boys are struck by how young Franklin was when he set out.
The Iliad, Homer. Harder than the Odyssey and better for an older boy. Achilles and Hector remain the two great pictures of what glory costs.
Older teens, roughly 16 to 18
Plutarch’s Lives, selected. Begin with Alexander and Caesar. Our beginner’s guide to reading Plutarch explains which translation to use and where to start.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, and the Enchiridion of Epictetus. See our piece on Stoicism for young men for how to read them and what to watch out for.
Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V and Julius Caesar. Seen on stage if at all possible, then read.
The Strenuous Life, Theodore Roosevelt. A short speech that says nearly everything a young man needs to hear about comfort and effort. We have published it in full.
Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Also on this site. Argue with it; that is what it is for.
Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, in selections. The book that explains the country he is about to become a citizen of.
Getting a reluctant reader started
Start with the shortest, hardest-hitting book on the list, usually The Call of the Wild. Read the first chapter aloud to him, then stop and hand it over.
Read the same book he is reading and talk about it, without quizzing. Boys will read for a conversation with their father when they will not read for a grade.
Let him abandon a book that is not working. Not every book on this list is for every boy, and a boy who is allowed to quit one will trust the next recommendation.
Remove the competition. A boy with a phone in his pocket will not read Stevenson. The single most effective reading program we know is a house with no screens after dinner and good books lying around.
Reading with other men
A boy who reads well will eventually want company for it. If he is old enough, some of these books, Plutarch especially, are what Meriwether’s Gentlemen’s Classics Book Club reads each week, and a father who has read them alongside his son will have plenty to bring to the table. For adults looking for their own list, our Meriwether Fall Reading List is where to look.