Recommended Reading List for Boys (from 1943)

I recently put out my worst performing ParkNotes YouTube video yet. The topic? My my favorite childhood book. I don’t know why everyone refuses to watch the video or why YouTube isn’t pushing it, but it’s going unwatched—which is a shame because it’s a really really cool book.

The book is called Fun For Boys edited by William Allan Brooks in 1943. It’s basically a compendium of activities that will transform boys into confident, well-adjusted men, while having fun learning useful hobbies like training your dog, woodworking, building a powerful physique, boxing & Japanese Jiujitsu for self-defense, and the science of wrestling. I highly recommend you check out the video! The book is chalk-full of wisdom, great advise, and a few outdated and hilarious suggestions.

Watch it here:

However, I know lots of my fellow bookworms will be most interested, not in how this book will turn boys into Batman, but instead, most of you will want to see what men in the early 1940s thought were must reads for boys.

You can find the list in the video above but I figured I’d include pictures here for quick reference. Let me know what you think about this list. I haven’t read very many of them yet myself, but I’d like to. I need to triage the list, what are must reads from this list and what should be added?

Also, watch my video to stick it to the YouTube algorithm which is being a punk!