We aren't the only ones out here on the internet doing this kind of thing.  There are a good many others finding great boys' reads, and we haven't really done much to send you their way if you haven't already found them.

I won't go repeating other people's lists, but I will link you to a good one someone else made: Maggie Lyons Blog.  I don't want to steal her hard work, so head on over there for plenty of blogs and resources.

School has started, and with it comes all the ads for back-to-school ads claiming that buying a tablet will help your kid in school.  I'm not sure how that's possible, but given how many kids have various devices, it's nice to know some sites that are good for them.  Since it's inevitable that they will not only have those devices but will quite likely prefer them over books, here's stuff they might like.  I've covered this topic before, but here's a couple more.

One of my go-to site for is Wikipedia. I don't have to go into too much detail on what it is; you should all know by now.  That said, there's some neat stuff on there that should pique the interest of many young folk with a taste for the weird.  The best way to get at it? Look no further than the rather thorough List of Unusual Articles.  Here you will find everything from articles about perfectly logical sentences consisting of only the word "Buffalo" to the novels of Saddam Hussein, as well as weird bits of math and science.

Kotaku is good for those who want to keep abreast of the gamer industry.  Kids tend to obsess over stuff, and kids who love games and gaming want to know what's coming.  Kotaku is quite good at keeping up, and though they often discuss the business side of things as much as games themselves.

Neither of these sites are intended for teens, but I don't like to think of them as needing dumbed-down content.  If it fits their field of interest, I'll suggest it.  So the warning comes: the content is not always kid-friendly, particularly the Wikipedia stuff.  They'll cover anything, so be warned.

I haven't been reading lately (too much Pokemon), so I was struggling to figure out something to recommend.  I was scouring blogs and the internet, digging for something to talk about when it occurred to me that I was reading.  Blogs, comment sections, chats, info pages, wikipedia.  It's all words, and it's all reading, so I figured, why not remind people that that is reading too.  Of course, keeping a teenaged boy focused while on the internet could be an issue.  After all, there's plenty of distractions.  There's the always-popular cat videos.

I spend a lot of time online on my computer, phone and iPad, just mucking about, not really looking for anything in particular.  Cat video distractions aside, I usually just go where the links take me, usually using some sort of reader or news aggregator like Flipboard or Google Reader Play.  I read a whole lot of articles about whatever.  It's almost like it's a magazine or newspaper, and that's the point. So how is this useful for getting teen boys to read?  There's a good chance they're already doing it.  Just because they aren't reading dead trees doesn't mean they aren't reading at all.  So what can they read?  Obviously there is a lot out there that is totally not appropriate and a lot that is borderline, especially for the younger set.

I have recommend a number of times material from cracked.com.  The language is occasionally salty and some of the articles are upper-PG-13, but it's nothing most kids haven't already heard.  They are usually lists about science and history with weird facts, myths and oddities thrown in.

Yahoo has some fine sports blogs that go beyond straight reporting and go into opinion, analysis and straight-up comedy as they see fit, and that's only the beginning.  Most major sports teams have both official and fan-created blogs that cover minor stories that don't make the major news outlets.

If guys have any obsessive interests (games, tv series, movies, comics, etc.), there's a wiki for it.  If they are interested enough, they might even contribute.  Try just about anything on wikia.com.

There are, of course, millions of other options.  These are just three that I look at regularly.

Today on cracked.com is an article on why it's so hard to find funny books, specifically fiction.  I'm sure some of you out there are thinking, "There's plenty of funny stuff."  The author means belly laugh funny, not clever turns of phrase.  Read point number 2 to see what I mean.

I'm going to take a stand here.  Let's make funny books a genuine genre, just like movies.  Let's set aside the comedy novels in their own section for all to find easily, instead of throwing them in with everything else.

You may over the course of reading this and future posts come to find that I like trivia books. If there is one thing about me that hasn't changed since I was 14, it is that. I've always loved trivia books, games, and just spouting off random facts. I know that this is true for me, obviously, but I know there are a lot of other teenage guys out there who want the same thing, particularly the nerdy and geeky kind.

People ask me where I learn all this nonsense. Trivia books obviously, and this is one of the better ones.

Cracked.com is the rebirth of an old magazine that itself was a knockoff of MAD, but it has vastly improved (though it is, ahem, mature: swears and PG-13 adult content beware). This book compiles a bunch of lists like the ones on the website, all true. For example:

• Important discoveries made well on drugs: Discoverer of DNA was high on LSD when he though of it
• Insane weapons planned in WWII: Giant solar beam mirrors in space!
• Bugs in our food (on purpose no less): Jelly beans are coated with bugs!

This isn't just random trivia; it's hilarious random trivia.