Wild Stories: The Best of Men's Journal

I carefully spread my reading of this book over almost three years like a little kid hoarding his Halloween candy until he gets his Easter basket. Now that I have read it once, I am marking time until I read it again. I will tell others about it, but I will not loan it to them. Even my brother, son, and Himalayan-climbing nephew must find their own copies. If you must break in and rob my house, take the cash--leave this book. Jay Falls

My brother gave this to me as a Christmas gift -- something I could pick up during holiday travel and read in short bursts. It's April and I'm still reading a story here and a story there. Almost without exception, the writing in this anthology is first rate. And the breadth of tone and topic is amazing. You'll read about climbing in South America; asbestos, suffering, and greed in Montana; survival and injustice in the WWII Pacific; eating your way across Louisiana; the virtues of owning a cabin; a porn conference in Las Vegas; and golf's almost-good enough. Highly recommended!

"Wild Stories" is a collection of 32 essays culled from the pages of Men's Journal. The stories are organized into four sections: The Adventures, The Sporting Life, Men's Lives and The Reporting. But there's no monotony in the essays themselves. The editors of this book have done as great a job in pulling together a variety of themes, as they have in presenting the work of outstanding writers. The topics range from the exciting to the funny to the inspiring. In fact, it doesn't feel right to read more than one or two essays a day, and risk not giving the stories enough time to sink in. I'm sure everyone will have his or her personal favorites, but the stories that I enjoyed the most included "Weird Karma," "Sunk" and "Buried at Sea." Granted, not every story will appeal to everyone's taste. But there's enough quality writing in here to please just about anyone. Fair warning, though: the men who star in these essays have done some pretty amazing things. It makes you feel just a little bit inadequate.