The two principal reviewers of Men Reading Books are both named Don. We became friends in 1972 when we were both in grad school in Indiana. We quickly discovered (when we weren’t studying) that we liked the same kind of escapist literature: thrillers, murder mysteries, espionage novels, sports books (especially soccer) and real adventure stories. When our careers took us in different directions we made a point of keeping up-to-date with what each other was reading. I went to the West Coast, and the other Don went to the East Coast. In the 70s there were letters, then in the 90s it was email, and in 2009, East Coast Don (ECD) announced he would create a blog just so we could keep track of what we were reading. My friend came up with the title Men Reading Books, and I agreed to that, becoming West Coast Don (WCD).
 |
| West Coast Don |
We never had any intent to do anything more than write for each other and hopefully, a few of our friends. To our pleasant surprise, some authors began to find us and to comment about what we had to say about their books. Some of them began to send us their new prepublication books. Then, publishers and publicists started reading us and sending us books. In a week’s time, I was being offered books from Simon & Schuster and Random House. Smaller publishers were a big part of our growth. Soon, we were getting internet hits from every English-speaking country in the world, and we were getting to know more authors and other people in the industry.
 |
| East Coast Don |
Since 2009, we’ve reviewed more than 500 authors and we’ve currently reviewed almost 2000 books. The posts have been happening at the rate of about 100 per year. Lately, the amount of internet traffic to our blog has increased significantly. It remains our intent to provide each other with an honest review, to write when a book was not worth the time it took to read. Now, it is my hope that when you’re looking for a new book you will think about referring to this blog. EDC has mostly stayed with the original thriller genre, but I’ve tended to wonder off-genre from time to time. Thanks for checking us out.
