Boom! This is Books & Biceps #377!

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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

When was the last time you read Robinson Crusoe? Eighth grade? High school? Ever?

If you did read it, what do you remember about it?

Most likely that the main character, Crusoe, gets shipwrecked and has to learn to survive on an island as the only human.

But did you also know that the book came out in 1719? And that it’s considered the first novel? And that the author, Daniel Defoe, published the book as a first-hand account and tried to pass off the whole thing as a true story, even using an original byline of “himself”.

Check this out:

I didn’t remember any of those things about the book either. The only thing I remembered from whenever I read it as a kid was that one of the character’s names was Friday.

In doing research for my second fiction book (yes, Bear Brawl doesn’t come out until November 2026, and the one I’m referencing here will be in 2027!), I am re-reading Robinson Crusoe and I have to say: it’s good. Really good. And entertaining. And the themes are timeless.

The first ten pages, in fact, should be read by every teenager before they go off to college. There is a portion that reads like an essay on how to find yourself, how to weigh your parents’ advice versus what you want, when to trust your gut, etc…

There are, of course, many things that the author references from his time period over 300 years ago that have changed, but the story itself is easy to follow and when Defoe switches to the Journal entries about 70 pages in from the shipwrecked island, the novel gains momentum.

There are natural comparisons to Tom Hanks’s movie Castaway, which obviously was influenced by this book, swapping a shipwreck for a plane crash, but Crusoe’s documenting of his despair and desolation to coming to grips with his situation and building a life on the island is clever and entertaining.

And there are some great quotes, like this one:

“All our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.” Try the book here. The mass market paperback is only $5 or so.

NOTE: I don’t read or remember as many classics as I should. But this one got me thinking about that. Every few months I’m going to try to read something I only read in school and probably didn’t understand when I was 15. I’ve tried Moby Dick several times and I can’t stand it, so that’s out.

Is there one classic out there that you were forced to read in high school or college that I should check out? One that holds up and probably has themes I didn’t know or care about in school, but will now resonate as an adult and dad? Hit me up with recs.

You have all seen a million pictures of my Flex Factory garage gym at this point, so you know how fond I am of it. However, if I was starting from scratch, I can’t say that I wouldn’t give something like this a shot with one caveat:

I would use this company to buy all of my gym equipment in one place and while I’d like to have the ability to neatly store it, I never would do that. I’d keep it open all the time. Meaning, I would only get something like this if I never had to fold it back up. I think going through the set-up every single time I wanted to lift would be miserable.

Basically, this is an entire gym in a box. Check out the video and let me know what you think:

Also, I am becoming an even bigger and bigger fan of weighted pull-ups and push-ups versus similar machines or barbell exercises.

I like the natural movements and I like adding weight versus increasing the number of reps to keep from too much wear and tear on joints. This GoRuck pack can handle about 60 pounds of extra weight. I’m not there yet on the pull-ups, haha, but even 20 extra pounds is a lot with bodyweight work.

Add in a few different levels of Fat Gripz and you can hit your whole upper body except shoulders with 4 different grips for push-ups and pull-ups.

If you’re a guy over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join us at Midlife Male.

I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. This week, in honor of John Grisham’s new book, The Widow, I wrote about one of my absolute favorite author success stories, Grisham’s rise from failed author to literary titan:

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