Boom! This is Books & Biceps #329!

Welcome to our hundreds of new readers and we’re leading off with BIG NEWS:

The Paperback Edition of Generation Griffey is out now! And dudes are sharing pics of their copies with us left and right:

Love it! Keep’em coming! Rise up, Books & Biceps crew. I wrote this book for us!

This is the perfect gift to get yourself or the 90s dude in your life. Turn that hat backwards like Griffey, toss some Bagel Bites into the oven, pop NBA Jam into your N64 and let’s goooo:

PS: If you ordered the digital version and would like the print one instead, reply to this email and let me know. Digital comes out next week.

Did an awesome B&B reader shared this with you? Add your e-mail with the subscribe button below:

BOOKS

Die Hard: An Oral History by Brian Abrams

First thing’s first: This is an A+ book cover.

Turning John McClane’s classic dirty, bloody and beat-up tank top into a book cover hits all the notes I look for. Genius idea. Brilliant execution. The spatter and grime are flawless.

Second, as of this morning (Friday 12-6-24), this book is somehow FREE on Kindle. Yeah, free. It costs zero dollars, so go get it now.

Finally, let’s talk about the book.

For me, oral histories only work when you learn A TON of new information while you’re reading it. And I don’t mean the basic trivia stuff that big time fans of the project know… I mean random details and thoughts and stories that even people who have gone down Wikipedia wormholes don’t know.

Brian Abrams accomplishes this with Die Hard.

I’m sure some of you knew that the movie was based on a book called Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe. And some of you may have even known that the book was about a 48-year-old guy who was trying to spend Christmas Eve with his daughter (not his wife). And you may have known that the character’s original name was Joe Leland.

And if you knew all that, good for you. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the Die Hard lore.

One of my favorite tidbits to learn was that early on, the studios hated the idea:

“Whatever the point is of this novel, it escapes me,” wrote a studio script analyst. “As a theme, it seems rather distasteful….” The report concluded with NOT RECOMMENDED in capital letters.

This was just the first hurdle for the film and it happened nearly ten years before it was even made! The other big obstacle to the movie was that nobody wanted to star in it.

The studio’s first choice was Arnold Schwarzenegger but he was too busy. Then they literally offered it to every single 80s actor you can think of and they all turned it down: Stallone, Richard Gere, James Caan, Burt Reynolds and on and on…

Incredibly, after that, Bruce Willis got a record breaking $5 million payday for the film (the story on this in the book is great - almost worth reading for that alone)…

One of my favorite little revelations is that the title, Die Hard, was originally the title of the screenplay for The Last Boy Scout by Shane Black, which Willis would star in years later. But Joel Silver loved the title Die Hard and couldn’t find the right project for it until Nothing Lasts Forever came along. And of course, everyone hated the title at first. They thought it sounded like a car battery you’d buy at Sears. Ha!

If all this fascinates you, then I would 100% get it here. It’s a fast read and the behind-the-scenes info on your favorite scenes and actors is phenomenal.

BICEPS

This is my new favorite phrase about being jacked:

“Your body is a billboard for your discipline.”

I’m not sure if it’s an original or not, but Alan Ritchson, the beast of a man who plays Jack Reacher on the show Reacher shared it in a video on Instagram this week.

What was he doing?

He was running hill sprints with his sons:

I love this for so many reasons, the first of which is that as a dad, you set the tone for your kids.

Being in shape and pushing your body to its full potential isn’t a “sometimes thing”. It’s a lifestyle; a lifelong commitment to having a strong, healthy, capable body.

You can do all the nagging in the world to get your kids to exercise, but if they don’t see you doing it, it won’t stick.

And the reverse is also true. When your kids constantly see you taking on new physical challenges and exercising, they eventually want to jump in without you saying a word.

Not all the time, of course. Some kids are never going to care what they bench or how fast they run a mile… But if they can simply build a habit of cardio training and strength training 3-4 times a week it will serve them their whole lives.

Also, as Ritchson says, your body is your billboard to the world. If you’re out of shape and lack energy and dress frumpy, people will draw certain conclusions about you. If you’re lean, athletic or jacked, wear clothes that fit and emit confidence, people will see that and draw different conclusions.

They’ll know you care about yourself. They’ll know you have the discipline to project strength to the world and to continuously better yourself. They’ll be drawn to you.

It’s a great message and I wanted to share it.

QUICK FLEXES:

CALLING ALL BOOKS & BICEPS AUTHORS:

One of the best parts of writing this newsletter is how many fellow authors read it. I’ve met so many cool writers and love hearing about about your upcoming books and projects and I’ve tried to share them when they come along. I admit I’ve missed a few due to scheduling and other books in my queue. Sorry about that.

ON THAT NOTE: The last thing I ever want to be is a bottleneck between an awesome book and a reader so I had an idea for this holiday season:

If you’re an author and you read B&B regularly, I will promote your book next week right here to our nearly 20,000 readers. All I ask for is three things:

1) Send me an image of the cover.

2) Send me a short paragraph about why you think Books & Biceps readers would love your book (5-7 sentences).

3) The link you want to use to sell it.

And that’s it. If you send me all three I’ll share them all here and our readers can buy them for the holidays. Please have them to me by next Thursday afternoon at 3PM (12/12). You can just reply to this email.

My advice is to make the short pitch to readers as relatable as possible. Reference similar books or movies, share why you wrote it, etc… Those things move copies.

All you have to do is reply to this email with that info. Thanks!

Don’t Forget to Order Generation Griffey Today!

If you still wear your hat backward like Griffey, think all the Prime flavors are dumb because Gatorade Citrus Cooler is the greatest sports drink ever, miss Blockbuster and Tower Records, destroyed your friends in Street Fighter, GoldenEye, and NBA Jam, can quote Tommy Boy and Billy Madison, and never missed Stu Scott on SportsCenter —this book, Generation Griffey, is for you.

I ranked 90 of the '90s things that made your dude childhood legendary. A rankfest, if you will. Ninety columns. By me. For you. For US.

Why Generation Griffey?

First, it’s a great name. We’ve got alliteration, “generation,” and the quintessential athlete of that era: Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior perfectly defines the era for late '80s and '90s kids because the apex of his career matches our childhood. From the day he joined the Mariners’ lineup in 1989 through the next decade, nobody embodied '90s style (the backward hat), swagger (the swing, the smile, the commercials), and coolness (the kicks, the cameos, the crossover stardom) quite like Griffey.

His reign atop the sports/celebrity pyramid (alongside Jordan) from his rookie year in Seattle to his move to the Reds in 2000 serves as the perfect bookend for all of us who grew up in the last decade of the last century.

See? Generation Griffey is a spectacular name for this book.

What are we ranking?

Everything. Well, not everything, but the 90 most nostalgic things that make us dudes smile all these years later: the movies we quoted, the athletes we loved, the cards we collected, the foods we devoured, the shows we watched, and more. All of it. Got it? Good. Let’s go.

STRONG LINKS

1) KNEES OVER TOES

This is the EXACT workout I’m using to cure my longstanding low back pain, along with my longtime pathetic mobility and flexibility. The program is called Knees Over Toes. I’ve been doing it for 3 weeks and the results have been remarkable for me. My tight hip pain has disappeared and my low back pain has gone from a constant five down to a two. Doesn’t even hurt to bend and put on socks and shoes, haha.

If you’d like to sign up, please USE THIS LINK FOR BOOKS & BICEPS READERS.

2) MIDLIFE MALE

If you’re a dude over 40 and you used to read Men’s Health or Esquire or GQ, and you’re looking for a digital magazine to get you on top of your game and keep you on top of your game, with incredible A-List interviews (Troy Aikman, Don Saladino, Gunnar Peterson and more), original columns and a curated list of weekly items second-to-none, subscribe to Midlife Male Magazine.

I’ve been helping build this publication from the ground up and it’s the magazine I used to wish existed - and now it does:

3) Is freelance writing one of your New Year’s resolutions? Have you always wanted to learn how to write for your favorite publications, blogs or magazines? My Freelance Fortune Course has you covered. Everything I’ve learned in 20 years of writing for the world’s biggest publications like: The New York Times, GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports and more.

In fact, one of our course members just landed his first piece and wrote me:

4) Readers always ask me what supplements I take or what post/pre-workout I use.

I’ve been using the same brand since they launched about a decade ago: Jym Supplements. I’ve known the owner and founder for fifteen years and it’s the best tasting, highest quality stuff around. Try my favorite pre-workout (Blue Arctic Freeze) and protein powder (S’mores) here.

🔥🔥🔥If you want to start your own newsletter, I can’t recommend Beehiiv enough (the platform I use to write Books & Biceps):

→ USE THIS LINK to try Beehiiv and you won’t regret it!

PS: You still reading Gus and Mallory? Thanks for getting through the whole thing! No skimming!