This occured to me after re-reading a book that was part of my self-education about gay history. the book, "The Spartan" by "neo-paganist" Don Harrison is at once harshly realistic and also as bland and innocuous as any children's book.

A quick search of the internet suggests that the basic facts about homosexual relationships and athletics in ancient Greece are largely accurate. It's best feature is the casualness and neutrality with which it treats these relationships.

My curiosity about what young gay men are reading now, to educate themselves (assuming they don't get an adequate background from traditional schools) arose when I read about the recent death of John Hope Franklin about whose extraordinary personal life I knew very little until his death. Now his story seems to be everywhere.

But I only knew him through reading "From Slavery to Freedom" as a kid and bits and pieces of references to him later during my self-education about the history of African-Americans and pre-Columbian Americans. So if you younger gay men out there are educating yourselves what are you guys reading?

As I vaguely remember posting in another thread, I have avoided gay lit after a couple years of reading almost anything with a gay theme at 16-18ish. The #1 thing that I'm glad I read is Randy Shilts's The Band Played On. My generation was too young to remember Reagan and grew up post-AIDS. That book is an absolute shocker on so many levels. Just having seen the movie doesn't compare.

Despite the relatively small age disparity, I expect a big difference between how someone my age (25) and current teens and tweens will have educated themselves about gay life and gay history. I had the internet in middle and high school, but it was a much slower and less interactive experience. Social networking has since moved a large portion of people's life online; one can imagine coming out not by sitting your friends or parents down to tell them in person, but by ticking the "Interested in Men" box on Facebook. Talk about a paradigm shift. For this and other reasons, internet sources are probably where most young people are getting their information nowadays.

I'm a bit confused about the question, though. I just leafed through The Spartan and it appears, um...erotic. I won't use the word pornographic without actually having read it. Are you asking about nonfiction, historical fiction, books in general, or something else?

An Arrow's Flight is a flawed but still worthy entry in the ancient gay fiction market:
http://www.amazon.com/Arrows-Flight-Novel-...s/dp/0312242883

If we're talking about a purely bookish approach (as opposed to the buildup of my education the past few years coming both 'on the job' by helping other young folks through coming out and through gay news etc.) then I have to pick out two older books, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and 'The diary of Anne Lister'.

Of course, most of my connection with my inner self came through copious listening to the Smiths.

So yeah, not exactly what may have been expected from your average 21 year old.

First of all, your response answers my question perfectly.

Secondly, I am not sure which pages you leafed through but this review gives a closer reaction to mine after reading The Spartan. In particular the quote only puts it mildly for me. I thought the "sex" was more on the level of a Barbara Cartland romance than much of the erotica I've read.

(BTW my partner and I have a hoot over the imitation of her by the gay half of the Little Britain pair.)

If you read The Spartan through you might find it required a bit more historical research than the works of Dame Mary.

From a lit. perspective probably the two most significant books which I read in highschool were Timothy Findly's The Wars and The Picture of Dorian Grey. An interesting book (not necessarily gay themed but it hints it uses sexual ambiguity to create tension) is Lynn Code

Movies: Brokeback Mountain, Latter Days, Summerstrum, etc. were probably more important because they are easily accecible over the internet, whereas the type of gay-themed fiction you get on the internet baisically amounts to porn.

my local Borders has what they call gay fiction-it's porn

maybe a handful of books that aren't but for the most part it is

I have to order from the net or go to Different Light in the city to find anything good

It's interesting how that distinction is blurred, and I've seen it so much (people thinking - hmm... gay men like sex and quiche). I once borrowed a book from my local library called "Gay Love Poetry" - gay sex poetry more like. Not that it was bad, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

I think we should set up some kind of platonic love-based gay fiction stable...

Why not share it here. At least that's a start. God if only I'd had a site like this when I was under 30.

Hopefully the Stonewall Library and Archives will be interesting enough to hold wider appeal than just a niche repository.

If it became a supplementary tourist destination perhaps Ft. Lauderdale could learn to like it if not love it.

The Rainbow High series by Alex Sancez is a good light read.The Gay Youth Chronicles by Mak A. Roeder is a good series.Especially The Soccer Field Is Empty,and Someone Is Killing the Gay Boys of Verona.Lastly,Vintage;A Ghost Story by Steeve Berman

They are reading this.............