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The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

I’ve come across a lot of cool people and blogs since I’ve been writing Books & Biceps and one of my new favorites is the Campus Files by Sam Hunter.

Sam is an expert in all things Jack Ryan and Tom Clancy. His tagline for his site is “The Ryanverse declassified”. I love that. Back when I was a teenager my dad traveled a lot and he devoured Clancy’s mass market paperbacks on airplanes.

Whenever he’d come home from a trip, I’d head over to his nightstand to see if there were any books I was interested in. Some of Clancy’s earlier novels were too dense for my teen brain (meaning, I was too dense to understand them, haha) but one I remember reading and really liking was The Hunt for Red October. Of course, the movie with Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin is also a classic, which helps my memory.

I know a bunch of you love Clancy and similar thrillers, so I reached out to Sam to see if he’d be interested in a Books & Biceps Q&A and he said yes. Very cool of him.

First, visit his website here. Second, don’t do a Crazy Ivan. Just stay where you are and read this fun interview:

FINKEL: If you could build one Transformer-like literary main character from all your reading, pulling one trait from each guy to come together as the perfect hero, what traits would you pull from whom? For instance: Jack Ryan's resourcefulness, James Reece’s ruthlessness, etc... Whose fighting ability? Shooting ability, etc...? Fun one.

HUNTER: For my ultimate character build, drawing on aspects of other characters, then I'd have to pick the tactical ruthlessness of the likes of James Reece, John Clark (in his prime), and Court Gentry. Add to that the resourcefulness and humor in the face of disaster of Mark Watney, from Andy Weir's The Martian. Jack Ryan Senior's analytic acumen would be incredibly useful. And then to fully round this character out I would add the moral leadership of Sam Damon, from Anton Myrer's Once an Eagle.

The reality, however, is that a character who has it all is nothing more than the ultimate macguffin. It can make things too easy and remove all the tension from the plot. The best characters have one or two great attributes and then struggle with where those take them, or what it means as a contrast to what they are lacking. And the best books bring characters together with complimentary or opposing attributes.

Jack Ryan and John Clark are a great example. Both are patriots of the highest order, yet the two are very different and, in many ways, have opposing values and methods towards achieving the same objective. They often find themselves in tension with each other over approaches to that same objective. Although they both are great at just getting out of each others way so they can play their own part towards resolving the issue at hand.

What is a perfect thriller book cover must-have for you? What do you look for in a book cover that makes you HAVE to read it? What is your favorite all-time cover and favorite recent cover?

For the sort of books I mostly read, a great book cover is one that pulls a thread from the plot and generates an intriguing, evocative feeling that also taps into something akin to nostalgia. For the techno-thriller genre this can be incredibly exciting. I recently wrote an article about the use of the word "Red" in techno-thriller books and how it evokes an 80s vibe of the West Vs Communist antagonists. There are a whole host of book covers there that tap into exactly what I mean.

I also really enjoy the covers for Marc Cameron's Arliss Cutter series. Totally different vibe because the theme of those novels is vastly different. They are about wide open, big sky country, and the covers are just so beautiful that it helps transport me to that place before even opening the book. I'm ready to explore and get to know that landscape.

I also confess to getting a little meta and checking out how the covers differ in different places around the world. Sometimes they differ simply because of usage rights but, like title changes, it can also be to fit cultural differences.

Share your number one book-turned-movie property? Which movie or show got it exactly right in your mind?

This is a trick question because I don't think any movie or TV show gets it exactly right. The nature of the differing mediums means there always has to be some form of compromise that has the inevitable effect of taking something away. And here's the thing, that will be different for different people because of imagination. Two people can read the same book and each gets something different from it because a book requires, and leaves, so much to the imagination. Whereas a movie is very much the same experience for those two people. They both see and hear the same thing. Much less room or requirement for imagination. And that's why the debate always rages between people about the faithfulness of movies and shows to the original book.

That being said, I will dare to venture a couple of shows I think are done incredibly well: Band of Brothers, SAS Rogue Heroes, Silo (out of genre, but a great example nonetheless).

I think the key to enjoying something both on the page and on the screen is to expect something different from both. But I will admit to finding it so irksome when adaptations are so far from the original that you know brand recognition has been bought rather than there being true intentions to do justice to the original.

Follow Sam on Twitter here as well.

I swam in the FAU Sprint Meet this past weekend and do you want to know something wild?

I’m now swimming my 50 fly, at age 48, within a second of my fastest times in high school. That’s crazy. I’m once again knocking on the door of going under 26 seconds (26.42) and I’m pretty confident I can get under 25 by the end of this year, something I never did in my swimming prime. Just gotta get my stroke longer and back-half 25 cleaner off the wall. You can check out some highlights here:

Overall, not a bad day at the pool. 50 fly. 50 free. 100 fly. Two golds and a silver for the 45+ dudes. Still didn’t crack 1 minute in the 100 fly. My fourth straight swim under 1:01 but not 59:00 seconds. Killer.

I blew my last turn and that did me in. Oh well. Nothing like competing in a sport where tenths and hundredths of a second count. Lose focus and... poof.

And as always, the best part is that my daughter comes and hangs with me. Swim meets are boring, haha. I know it. But we have fun, grab a HUGE lunch afterwards and it’s the best. Sub :26 50 and sub 1 minute 100 fly here we come!

Fellas! 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’m the Editor-in-Chief and I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. And since it’s summer, and many of you have a little more time on your hands than normal, I thought I’d share my strategy to help you read more… But not just “read more” in a vague sense. I will give you specifics. This column will teach you how to read a book every ten days or so. Don’t believe me? Check it out:

First, watch this publication day teaser:

Now, after you go run through a wall, come back, dust yourself off and pre-order the book ASAP if you want to get your name IN Bear Brawl.

Yes, I’ve dedicated a section in the back of the book for all of you. Forever. We’re calling it the Books & Biceps Hall of Fame. Every reader who pre-orders in time gets in. And every sale, even this early, counts so much. And now we’re down to the wire. I should have the final edits for the book back in the next few weeks (because I’m reading the audio book in July).

Once we go through those edits, the manuscript is locked and we won’t be able to add your name to the Hall of Fame.

Imagine this cool scenario: You’re reading this book over the holidays and someone sees you, notices the insanely awesome cover and asks, “Is that a good book?”

And you say, “Of course it is! I’m in it!”

And this person doesn’t believe you…

Then you casually flip to the ‘Acknowledgements’ section and point to your name in the Books & Biceps Hall of Fame… Bam! Mic drop.

Then they say, “Wow, you’re the coolest person alive. Your name is IN Bear Brawl!”

And you get to say, “Yep. And I all I had to do was buy it early through Books & Biceps.”

So let’s gooooo!

GRAB YOUR COPY OF BEAR BRAWL:

I appreciate you reading Books & Biceps every week. This book is going to be our moment. Our time to show the publishing world that we want these books. We want Bear Brawl.

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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