Father's Day book guide

This feature on Reads For Father’s day comes from our friends at Toro Magazine, the site that has exactly "What Men Need To Know".

So you’re stuck for something to get your dad? Boy, things aren’t as easy as they used to be. A silly tie won’t do it, he doesn’t even wear one anymore; and he stopped smoking years ago so forget about lighters, pipes, ashtrays and so forth; alcohol too is verboten and everything that comes with it; he’s on a salt-and-sugar-free diet; and he’s wearing these prescribed stockings for his varicose veins so you can’t even get him socks for God’s sake.

Well, maybe he can still read. If he can, well here are five inexpensive but illuminating volumes that you might consider getting him in the stead of stuff he can’t use or stuff you’ve given him a dozen times already over the years.

STUFF EVERY MAN SHOULD KNOW
Brett Cohen
Quirk Books
144 pages. $9.95

Speaking about stuff, Brett Cohen has compiled an engaging and indispensable little man-guide, Stuff Every Man Should Know. This rather handsome bantam companion features everything a man of the world should know but probably doesn’t. Or if he does know there’s nothing wrong with a solid refresher course. Even Dad gets things wrong on occasion. If he needs to know in a pinch how to cast a fishing rod, how to make the perfect martini, how to negotiate a raise or bet on horses, how to win a drink at a bar, how to shotgun a beer, how to open a beer bottle without an opener, how to fart in public and get away with it, how to perform a proper push-up and even how to tie a tie, all he has to do is reach into his pocket, pull out this neat little book and bingo: instructions in a nice font even a drooling man-child could follow, with occasional nifty diagrams to boot. Makes being a man as easy as 1-2-3….

THE LAW OF SUCCESS
Napoleon Hill
Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin
612 pages. $18.50

Hey, maybe your dear old dad never could get his act together. Maybe he’s a bum. It’s not too late. He might thank you in a few years for giving him Napoleon Hill’s extraordinary book, The Law of Success. This is the holy grail of success philosophy, and Napoleon Hill is the godfather of self-help gurus. Hill (1883-1970), who sold millions of books and influenced a generation of motivational speakers and writers, studied the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. Hill tapped into the psyches and lives of great men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford to create his formula for achievement. Perhaps best known for his statement "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” Hill encourages enthusiasm and goal-setting as keys to climbing up the ladder. His original formula has been crystallized here in 15 easy-to-read lessons and presented in a thickish but tidy one-volume edition. Who knows, if Dad learns the ropes, a bounteous patrimony may be your reward.

For more book picks, head over to Toro Magazine: Reads For Father’s Day