Tareau Barron

Tareau’s 10 favorite book of his lifetime. BECAUSE BLACK MEN DON’T READ, CORRECT?

Yes. Yes. And Yes. Let’s get into this. Black men are not portrayed as readers at all my friends. That’s very disturbing as a Black man. We can argue till the cows come home on faults but how about we bicker over solutions. Like my ten favorite book selection? No? Am I being presumptuous? Probably? But hey you can’t blame me for trying. Now before we get in to this, there are millions of books that I need to read. I get recommended different books from different people from all walks of life. I wish I could freeze time like


Evie from that TV show “Out of this World” and just read without time passing me by. Please I beg you, if you don’t like any of our posts, thoughts, contents, suggestions, please share this and give us your feedback. Books are universal. And no I’m not talking about a kindle or ebook. I’m talking bout getting a book passed down from an elder statesman, or going to get your library card for the first time. Reading will forever calm me and help me grow as a human. The smell of the pages. The feel of different types of material used in the pages. The illustrations. The forewords. Even if it’s total BS, the fact that my mind is engage in something constructive is fascinating. So here we go.

Honorably Mention 

Spot’s Touch and Feel.

This was the earliest book I have in my memory banks. I believe I was 2 or 3 when I had one of these Spot books. I think this booked got me hooked.

10.”The Art of War” by Sun Tzu

This book reminds me of how we as humans, are supposed to interact with conflict. The fact that I wish I could had the mental discipline to accomplish things with patience, is why air love this book. For the undisciplined this book is for you. (Meaning me)

9. “Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons” by Tim Russert.

Rest in peace Mr Russert. I received this book in the year of 2012. I was working as a driver tour guide in Napa Valley on a wine tour. I was on my break at sebastiani Vineyards when this older couple approached me on my bus. I was doing some plank exercises and they kindly knocked on the door. They chatted me up and they offered if I wanted something to eat. I kindly decline their offer but they left me with this book. We talk extensively about how fathers are so underappreciated and American society especially black fathers. They left me this book to read and I will never forget it. Mr. Tim Russert collects letters from his writers about their fathers. He even includes his relationship with his father and also his relationship with his son. This book gave me a new found appreciation on fatherhood. And especially if you are born in May, (ahem) you bday may fall on Mother’s day. How can you compete with that? (My day is May 11th).

8. “Not my boy” by Rodney Peete

You might know Rodney Peete from a former QB in the NFL or as Holly Robinson-Peetes’s husband, but he is more than that. Rodney Peete’s hands-on approach in dealing with his son’s autism  (RJ) is a real eye opener. As a black father who has autistic son’s, this book has helped me out tremendously. Thank you Mr. Peete for putting your emotions onto a great book.

7. “Dear Mr.Henshaw” by Beverly Clearly

This book is what inspired my writing. Imagine being a young boy writing to a mysterious person about your life. Pen pals are something we don’t have anymore but, was the coolest thing ever for me. Sigh.

6. “Roots” by Alex Haley

If you ever want a task while reading, please read roots. It took me 2 years to finish, because I got so distracted. You really feel accomplished in finishing a this massive text book of slavery. I’m not saying it’s a choir, but with my attention span, I had to motivate myself. I’m glad I finally did.

5. “Young, Black, Rich, & Famous” by Todd Boyd

This book was an eye opener for me. I I was never a big Michael Jordan fan and this book talks about his exploits of the black community. Also the parallels with hip hop and basketball and jazz and boxing. It’s great to be the person who doesn’t root for the popular person and this book explains it thoroughly. Going against the status quo is ballsy and probably what put my mentality about popularity into overdrive.

4. “Letters to a Young Brotha MANIfest your Destiny” by Hill Harper

Imagine trying to get a book published for your race. Imagine the publishers telling you that “there’s no market for your book because your people don’t read” Did your eyes tear up a Lil bit from that? Can you imagine that shit? “Your people don’t read.” That says it all. But nonetheless the book got published and was a pillar in the black community.

3. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” By Alex Haley

Should be in everybody’s book collection in my opinion. This was my bible. Malcolm’s vision to his struggles to his legacy is riveting. A real leader of people. Thank you Malcolm.

2. “Germany’s Black Holocaust 1890-1945” by Firpo W. Carr, PH.D.

The Jews has been through hardships since the dawn of time, correct? So has blacks right? Even though Hitler was rumored to be half Jewish, he had many SS officers who were jewish. He respected Jews too. Blacks?? Nope. Before the Nazis invasion, Germany’s brutal regime slaughter hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Africans. LSD, Super weapons, Agent orange, experimentation etc all done by the Nazis on blacks. Sad to type by its the truth. Hmmm I wonder why we never learned that in history class?

1. “Black Boy” by Richard Wright 

I honestly felt like I was the little Richard Wright. Setting his granny house on fire, rebelling against Christianity at a young age, meeting Bessie etc. There are a lot of parallels from this book that resemble my life. Even though the timing and location is different, I got lost in this book. Still trying to find myself till this day. Now that’s power.

So folks, people, gentlemen, and ladies there’s my list. This was a powerful experience to recall for me. These books molded me to the man I am today. And that’s what happened when you don’t have a father. You look for them in other beings. I looked for mines in books.

Peace

20 comments

  1. I love this Tareau! But you know colored folk don’t know how to read! Shiftless, just plain ignant!

    LMAO!!!!

    Just kidding….
    I made my son read The Autobiography of Malcolm X when he was a young whippersnapper. It was important because I wanted him to read Malcolm’s take on the fact that everybody in the hood had a specific skill set that would be highly valued in a different setting, i.e, West Indian Archie could have been a Mathematician had he been given a shot. Malcolm could have been an attorney and so on and so forth. My son learned a lot from that book and he is still a huge fan.
    Also, I had a friend get Hill Harper’s autograph for my son in his book Letters to a Young Brother; he was only about 11 or 12 when we got it. Hill Harper is an amazing dude!

    YAAASSSS! Brah, you DID that with this list!

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  2. Thank you for sharing your blog with me. I am a Big reader. And still old fashion believe in paper book as you mention. I just can not get into those ebook or kindle. I am interested in 2 of your books that I have to definitely check them in the library. Not my son and Letters to a young brother. Right now I am reading Maya Angelou Heart of a mother.

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  3. I can still recall the day myself and my brothers and sisters were running around the house, being kids and making noise, when the doorbell rang and the postman dropped off a package for my mother. All of us were instantly curious as to what it was, but our mother inher infinite patience and wisdom, took her sweet time opening the package without telling us what was inside. It was a set of encyclopedias! It took us kids all of three seconds to go from wondering why, to finding a spot on the floor and digging in. Happy to say we are all became big readers and I sometimes call myself a writer when the Spirit hits! Fantastic list you gave us, brother. I will be adding these titles to my present list. I’ll also offer a few of mine:

    ‘The Souls of Black Folk (W.E. B. Dubois), ‘The Measure of a Man’ (Sidney Poitier), ‘Between the World and Me’ (Ta-Nehisi Coates); the last one being the most recent read and a phenomenal book from a father to his son. You can’t go wrong with any of there titles.

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    • Man, thank you for checking us out once again. I will order these books asap. Unfortunately, I have other books queued up in front of them. I’ll get there though hahahhahaha. Also, I remember being a poor black kid here in the city, and circling all the books I wanted my mom to order from the scholastic order form (remember that) and I was so surprised that my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Chin, bought me $15 worth of books from scholastic to me. To get a gift of books with my Asian and white friends, made me feel equal for once.

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      • Scholastic order forms!!! Yeah, I remember them and thought they were the greatest thing in the world as a kid! Now that’s a memory coming back! Oddly enough, I only just learned in the past few months my father was a big time book reader. That’s a major connection to him I’ll always cherish. I think it’s been informing my writing process more and more. When I lived in Europe, I had so many books I couldn’t bring back to the states. It turned out I was able to donate them to the local library after giving a number of them away to my cohorts at work.

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      • I’d also add it must have been something to have a teacher recognize in you the love of reading and think it was worthy of a gift like that. Very nice memory to have, brother.

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      • No we just started in May. My cousin is the founder of thecouchsports.com. I’m just some idiot tagging along hahhahahaha. Naw but we try to give a different outlook on sports and society, all while going against the status quo.

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    • Preach sister. Like I don’t even get mad when I see people reading gossip tabloids because I’m like “Hey, at least they arrive reading!”

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      • Yes it is. We need to push for equality in the curriculum. I love reading about other cultures too and I shouldn’t have to read about them only during a “heritage month” as a student.

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  6. I didn’t know about Germany’s Black Holocaust. And NO this certainly wasn’t taught in school. Thank you for bringing this to our attention – it’s yet another thing that has been airbrushed from out history.

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