Boom! This is Books & Biceps #400!

Thanks to everyone who has shared this newsletter with a buddy or fellow sophisticated meathead over the last 8 years! We’re now 30,000 strong! In fact, if an awesome B&B reader shared this with you, add your e-mail with the subscribe button below:

For those of you not steeped heavily in Books & Biceps lore, this newsletter began as something called Finkel’s Fast Five back in 2017 or so, which was a direct rip-off of Five Bullet Friday, by Tim Ferriss.

It started with my immediate family and a list of friend’s email addresses that I’d had since college. I believe it went to 17 people. I sent FF5 (as I then called it) for a year or two until I realized that nobody who was considering subscribing knew who “Finkel” was or why they’d care about his five things - and also, I didn’t really have five things to share every week. It was more like two: a book rec and a meathead/workout thing.

One day while walking the dog I decided to dial in the entire newsletter concept around those two things and the name popped in my head: Books & Biceps!

And with that, the world’s #1 home for Sophisticated Meatheads was born.

Since then we’ve grown from around 800 readers to 30,000+ today. That is incredibly wild to think about. If we all showed up in Boston together, we would sell out the Garden and there’d still be 10,000 people standing outside. Or we could almost fill up Fenway Park with nobody sitting in the nosebleeds. We’re a pretty big group, is what I’m saying!

Professionally, from the first Books & Biceps newsletter to now, I’ve published 7 books, including Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage, 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete and Generation Griffey. And we’ve got Bear Brawl coming out November 10th.

I even did a book signing during a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden with Charlie Ward:

And got set up ringside at WrestleMania XL to promote Macho Man:

And I appeared live on CBS: This Morning to discuss my book, Jocks In Chief:

Newsletter-wise, we’ve had some big moments, with none bigger than being profiled in The New Yorker!

This was easily the coolest media hit we’ve ever had, and it’s given my friends and family endless fodder to rip on me for getting a hallowed, honored and prestigious New Yorker caricature while wearing a tank-top, hat and with a bench press behind me. But it’s very “on brand” as my son says. I love it.

This newsletter has also given us access to some amazing writers for Q&As. New York Times bestsellers and USA Today Bestsellers like Alex Hutchinson, Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Jeff Pearlman, Mirin Fader, Shea Serrano, L. Jon Wertheim, Ben Mezrich, Stayton Bonner, Jack Carr and so many more:

And absolutely NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU!

So from the bottom of my meathead heart, I want to say THANK YOU!

Thank you for whatever made you first subscribe. Thank you for whatever has made you keep reading. Thank you for writing me with your own book suggestions and training wins. And thank you for your continued support with each of my books.

Writing is an awesome, rewarding, and at times, lonely experience. Hours upon hours researching and staring at a screen. But knowing that every Friday I got to write directly to all of you has been so awesome. It feels like we’re all in this together. And that’s my favorite part of the Books & Biceps crew. - Jon

With that, I leave you with the first book that I ever recommended widely.

It was before newsletters were even a thing. I tell this story in the New Yorker interview, but to this day, Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson is one of the most popular book recs I’ve ever given and I gave it in person to all my friends. I’ve tried many times to give a better book description/teaser than the one they have on the back of the book, but I can’t. It’s perfect, and so is the read.

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson

In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat - complete with its crew of 60 men - not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew. During that time, three of their colleagues died exploring the wreck, including a father and son team. In 1997, when it all seemed in vain, the two divers came up with a final plan, so dangerous that the book ends with this last dive. Buy it here.

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. I thought it would be fitting for today’s issue to share this column: How I Read A Book Every 10 Days Like Bruce Lee:

The ‘Read More, Lift More’ 30-Day Brain & Body Endurance Challenge

The Flex Factory Garage Gym Muscle Manual: 90 Days to Meathead Nirvana

Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage, 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban, John Cena and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, Good Morning Chicago, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams. Jon was recently profiled in The New Yorker about the awesome community he’s built around his Books & Biceps newsletter. They describe him as “a gym rat’s Reese Witherspoon”. Reply to this email for any media requests.

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