Guys need to read more. Every time I start doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram, the BookTok world is almost exclusively curated for women. That is why we need to start pushing our love for the bang-bang shoot-’em-ups. The debonair spy. The man on his own, cut off from all help, with only his skills and his wits to help him overcome the obstacles between him and his mission. As men, we love these escapes from the mundane lives and diving into the hero fantasy we all have. When women talk about the mental load they carry every day, men are usually creating our own mental load with safety and security: “What would I do if someone attacked from here? Or there?” Really, what we’re asking is, “What would Jason Bourne do?”
I tend to live in this place in my head when I need to escape from the world, but it is more fun to read about it. As the weather begins to turn and our evenings and weekends are colder and darker, we need something to occupy our time to get us from now until we can escape to the great outdoors in the spring. Here are some action and adventure book recommendations to get your heart going and quench that hero fantasy without doing anything dangerous.
Alan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
Africa has always been a fascination with the explorer at heart. Many of us dream of Africa as this far-off place and only touch it in our dreams or in our movies. But H. Rider Haggard brought 18 novels of Allan Quatermain, a man who spent his life exploring the continent, hunting big game, and searching for lost civilizations. He was heavily inspired by Frederick Selous, a man who explored and “discovered” (it was always there, but the British credit him with establishing it) most of what we know as Zimbabwe. Not only that, but he heavily inspired this generation’s favorite adventurer, Indiana Jones. If you are a dreamer of far-off places of wonder and danger, Quartermain will keep you inspired.
Where to start – King Solomon’s Mines (1885) is the first of a two-book series that introduces the character. The second book is Allan Quatermain.
James Bond by Ian Fleming
I mean, are we surprised that 007 is making it on this list? I write about him regularly, and he is one of the pillars of our cultural understanding of modern masculinity. Whether this is a good thing or not. Now, having said that, the books are a little different than the movie versions. I grew up with Brosnan and Craig, and the original character is somewhere in between. While the character was built in the mid-century with mid-century male values and opinions on race and gender, he sets the standard for duty, luxury, and living a life with purpose.
Where to start – If you want to start at the beginning, the first Bond novel is Casino Royale (1953), followed by Live and Let Die (1954) and Moonraker (1955). If you want to focus on running storylines you can do From Russia with Love (1957) that moves into Dr. No (1958). Or you can jump to the 9th book in the series and read the SPECTRE trilogy: Thunderball (1961), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), and You Only Live Twice (1964).
Jack Ryan by Tom Clancy
Of all the men on this list, Dr. John Patrick (Jack) Ryan is the most honorable Boy Scout there is. In a world of corrupt bureaucrats in the intelligence and political communities, Ryan always seems to navigate the danger and manipulation by remaining aboveboard. A former military man who hurt his back in a helicopter crash, Ryan goes from teaching history at the Naval Academy to being an analyst at the CIA to finding himself on the wrong side of gunfire for upwards of thirty novels. Portrayed on the silver screen by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine, and more recently on Prime by John Krasinski, Ryan is one of the most quintessential male heroes of the modern world.
Where to start – This franchise is all over the place. You should decide if you would rather read these in chronological order or publication order. The Hunt for Red October (1984) was the first novel, followed by Patriot Games (1987) and The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988). However, chronological order puts Without Remorse (1993 – a prequel background story about John Clarke, an often-used black ops specialist throughout the series), followed by Patriot Games (1987) and Red Rabbit (2002).
Mitch Rapp by Vince Flynn
Mitch Rapp is a man who began out of revenge. When his fiancée dies in a terrorist attack, he picks up the sword (figuratively speaking) to become the government’s deadliest weapon against the world’s most formidable villains. He has dark hair and olive skin, so he can fit in among those the novels use as the opposition. With the first novel released in 1999, the Islamic terrorist villain was the hottest-button, ripped-from-the-headlines trope that thrust this franchise into the stratosphere.
Where to start – The first novel published, Transfer of Power (1999), showcased what the franchise is. A high-octane thrill ride. The storyline feels like it loosely inspired the film Olympus Has Fallen with Gerard Butler. There were also multiple prequel storylines. American Assassin (2010) saw the birth of the agent taking place right after his fiancée dies and sees him train under the hard-edged Stan Hurley. Since author Vince Flynn passed away in 2013 (the same year as Tom Clancy), other authors have picked them up, and Don Bentley released one taking place before American Assassin last year, and yet another that takes place even earlier hits this year.
Alex Cross by James Patterson
Where Jack Ryan and Mitch Rapp deal with the far-off places and the world-scale threats, Alex Cross brings the danger close to home. A brilliant doctor of psychology or criminal profiling or something of that nature, Cross and his lifelong friend and partner John Sampson chase local serial killers around Washington, D.C. while navigating family dynamics in a changing world. The character follows a similar live-action path as Jack Ryan with multiple big-screen adaptations played by Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry, and a new Prime show featuring Aldis Hodge in the lead. An intelligent man who looks like a young Muhamed Ali and fights like him too; these are dark stories that explore the worst of humanity.
Where to start – Thankfully, these are more straightforward, and you can read them in publication order with no prequels to worry about. Along Came a Spider (1993) was the first, with my personal favorite, Kiss the Girls (1994) right after.
Scot Harvath by Brad Thor
If you love Mitch Rapp, you will love Scot Harvath. These two feel like they should eventually end up in a novel together, as they feel very similar in spirit. A one-man force of nature so good at his job that the world fears him while the President loves him. Brad Thor writes from a place of deep passion and knowledge. He consults with the Department of Homeland Security and lectures law enforcement on future threats. There is a reason his novels feel like they are ripped from the headlines. Funny little aside: his character’s name, Scot, is loosely based on his brother. The one ‘T’ in his name is there because his brother, also named Scot, is spelled this way due to his mother not wanting three ‘T’s in a row (Scott Thor).
Where to Start – Lions of Lucerne (2001) dropped two years after the Mitch Rapp debut and has gone head to head with that franchise ever since. It follows a plot to kidnap the president’s daughter, and Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath is the only one to get her back. The follow-up, Path of the Assassin, is a direct continuation before the franchise starts feeling more like standalones that build on each other but can be read as one-offs.
Jack Reacher by Lee Child
Want more of the local flair? Jack Reacher is a man who hitchhikes around the country, getting into trouble in (most of the time) fictional towns across the USA. He is 6’5″, 300+ pounds of solid soldier with deductive reasoning rivaling Sherlock Holmes. Wanna know what Holmes would be like if he could bench press a Buick? This is that guy. He was controversially portrayed by Tom Cruise on the big screen, with Alan Ritchson bringing him to life, more closely resembling the books in a way the fans can digest on Prime. There are 31 books about him being brilliant, brutal, and a bit sarcastic.
Where to start – Killing Floor (1997) was the first story that saw him breeze into town in a fictional Georgian town where he discovers his brother was investigating corruption. While he is initially suspected of murder, he goes from suspect to harbinger of revenge really quickly. Then breezes out of town again to head to his new location and a new place for trouble to find him.
Dirk Pitt by Clive Cussler
A little less bang, a lot more adventure. While I love a good action novel focusing on the decimation of evil, I can’t keep myself away from a good search for the lost. Dirk Pitt is a former Vietnam pilot working for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). He works for another former Naval Officer, James Sandusky (whom he shot down in one of the novels; it’s definitely thinking outside the box), and with one of his best friends from the academy, Al. There are dozens of novels of underwater discovery alongside a whole slew of villains hellbent on world destruction or domination. I always characterize this franchise as Indiana Jones with a dive certification.
Where to start – The Mediterranean Caper (1973) was the first one published and introduces our hero in ways that lay out what to expect of him throughout Cussler’s career. Another novel, Pacific Vortex (1983), was published sixth but written first. His son, Dirk, took over the writing duties in 2004 and has written the last eleven novels of the total twenty-eight.
James Reece by Jack Carr
The newest writer on this list is one who exploded in the last few years. He spent twenty years in the Navy as a Navy SEAL. So when you read a book about SEALs written by a SEAL, you know the authenticity is going to be through the roof. His debut novel sees James Reece discover that the death of his entire team on a mission wasn’t just bad intelligence, but a plot to remove them and erase a deeper corruption they were all an unwitting part of. With a terminal diagnosis, Reece rampages through those behind his team’s murder before he succumbs. Now a Prime series starring Chris Pratt, this is a soldier and a read for modern times.
Where to start – The Terminal List (2018) kicked the entire story off, and the books simply keep coming. He dropped The Fourth Option this year as his first fiction not centered on Reece or the characters in that universe. There are eight novels in the James Reece franchise for you to enjoy.
Jason Bourne by Robert Ludlum
I am 43 years old. So I grew up with James Bond and Ethan Hunt on the movie screen. But it wasn’t until Matt Damon surprised me (and maybe the rest of the world too) when he portrayed the assassin with amnesia in the movies that I started getting curious about reading these kinds of novels. This franchise is also the weirdest one, as there are numerous authors who have been writing in the series for decades. But one thing stays constant: Bourne is the kind of character that makes you say out loud what they say in the movies. “Jesus Christ. That’s Jason Bourne.”
Where to start – You have to start with the original trilogy written by Robert Ludlum: The Bourne Identity (1980), The Bourne Supremacy (1986), and The Bourne Ultimatum (1990). Once you have read those, you can move on to the first author who continued the series, Eric Van Lustbader. He began with The Bourne Legacy (2004) and ended with The Bourne Initiative (2017), covering 11 novels. Brian Freeman took over with The Bourne Evolution (2020) and has written eight novels, with the most recent being The Bourne Revenge (2026).
Ten heroes for your weekends between now, through the winter, to get to longer days. Ten franchises of books (233 books in total, by the way) for you to dive into to forget the world in front of us. And like many of the villains in these books say, “This isn’t over.” I have more coming in part two. The Manual Library continues.
