In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson spoke about his love of reading and spoke about some of the books he has enjoyed. Danielson will face Hangman Page in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup tournament on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite. Here are highlights:
On expanding his mind through reading: “That translates to everything I do, especially wrestling. It’s an activity I love to do.”
On what he’s reading lately: “If I weren’t a wrestler, I would spend my life writing short stories,” said Danielson. “But I couldn’t do it nearly as well as Ted Chiang. I’m constantly reading different poetry. Right now, I’m reading Ted Chiang’s book of short stories called Exhalation by Ted Chiang, which is incredibly interesting. And I’m usually reading more than one book at a time. I’m also reading The Anxious Generation. It’s very present for me right now, and it’s about the results of kids using smartphones. I was expecting it to take a more alarmist approach, and it is a little alarmist, but I find it to be very balanced.”
On the World According to Garp: “I love that book. I read it in one day at the New Japan Dojo in 2003. We had done a Tokyo Dome show in early May, and Rocky and I were staying for the Super Juniors tournament. There was only something like 10 days in between, so they had us train at the dojo. We had a day off at the dojo, but I didn’t want to spend any money. I went for a walk and stayed the rest of the day in my room reading World According to Garp, and it was a long book–but I couldn’t put it down.”
