Welcome to seedickread.com,

the online headquarters of our Toronto-based men’s book club (yes, you read right) dedicated to reading books by men, for men, about men.

We meet on a regular basis at various Toronto pubs we find conducive to talking books, and drinking beer, gimlets, grog, red wine – or what ever other refreshment best represents the book currently in discussion. Not to mention eating chicken wings, playing pool, comparing imagined sexual conquests and watching sports on a giant screen (though not necessarily in that order). But not just any books! We read novels by men, about men and, judgmentally, for men. It is our belief that a focus on books for guys is the perfect antidote to a real world that has succumbed to an onslaught of Women’s Literature, Chick Lit, Ladies Book Clubs, Feminist Reading Circles and the irritating trend of book publishers and retailers catering almost exclusively to women.

Just in time for Father’s Day:
Books for Real Men 

The Wheatsheaf Literary Society has long been recognized as a ‘fine old Toronto institution’ by its seven or so members. Our mandate, as set down in the ‘Guy-laws’, is to read and discuss, over a beverage or two, books of fiction ‘by guys, for guys, about guys’. 

So, with Father’s Day almost here, the men of the WLS have a few suggestions as to the novels real men, like your dad, like to read. 

But before you get the idea that our list is all:

• hard-boiled detectives who solve their cases over a tumbler or two of fine single malt whisky, 
• dust-blown desperados who’d shoot any man who tried to steal their whisky, and 
• former/wannabe/sons of/famous writers/sports stars/war heroes/ entertainers/explorers whose wasted lives are measured out in extra innings/second acts /third reels,  easy/crazy/beautiful/ desperate women and broken brandy snifters/overflowing pitchers /empty whisky glasses …

…let me reassure you there are one or two that don’t include whisky. And as dust-blown desperados like to say, we’ve got them covered, too.

In fact, with a number of exceptions, when it comes to ‘dick lit’, the key ingredients can also include not just booze and broads, but: action, angst, adverbs (used only when absolutely necessary) and, if it’s really good, a twist you didn’t see coming. 

To help you in your quest, what follows is a meticulous, exhaustive list of every single book we’ve ever discussed, give or take one or two we may have forgotten. Feel free to choose at random, or check out some of our reviews here. Yes, we’re a little behind. No, we’re not going to apologize; we’re men! (Okay, sorry.)

The bottom line: despite what some say, real men read fiction. And more than half of us are dads. So, if we liked these, maybe your old man will, too. Happy father’s day! 

A Fan’s Notes - Frederick Exley

A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz

A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe

Barney’s Version - Mordecai Richler

Beside Still Waters - Barry Callaghan

Billy Bathgate - E.L. Doctorow

Black Bird - Michel Basilères

Blood Meridian - Cormack McCarthy 

Chump Change - David Eddie

Dirty Sweet - John McFetridge

Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Faceless Killers - Henning Menkell

Factotum - Charles Bukowski

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Flaubert’s Parrot - Julian Barnes

For Whom The Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

Getting Away With Murder - Howard Engel

Gould’s Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

High Fidelity - Nicolas Hornby

Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb

LAMB. The Gospel According to Biff - Christopher Moore

Legends of the Fall - Jim Harrison

Master and Commander - Patrick O’Brian

Maus - Art Spiegelman

Ninety-two in the Shade - Thomas McGuane

Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie

Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen

The Bishop’s Man - Linden MacIntyre

The Englishman’s Boy - Guy Vanderhaeghe

The Great Santini - Patrick Conroy

The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler

The Mambo Kings Sings Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos

The Man Who Was Late - Louis Begley

The Night Manager - John le Carré

The Road - Cormack McCarthy

The Rotters Club - Jonathan Coe

The Sirens of Baghdad - Yasmina Khadra

The Sportswriter - Richard Ford

The Stowaway - Robert Hough

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

The Van - Roddy Doyle

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller

Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden

Trout Fishing in America - Richard Brautigan

Our Latest Read

see the review section for more of our takes on some great reads!