6 things we learned about hockey star Quinn Hughes from his reading list

Yes, Olympic hockey player Quinn Hughes comes from a hockey family. But he also comes from a reading family.

The Minnesota Wild defenseman who scored the winning goal in the U.S.’s overtime win over Sweden on Feb. 18 has spoken often about his love of reading, as have his hockey-playing brothers Jack and Luke, who play for the New Jersey Devils (parents Jim and Ellen both played hockey). Jack and Luke have set up a reading program with the Devils called Pucks & Pages that supplies books to youth hockey players in Jersey, beginning last fall with “Fast Pitch,” about a girl who loves softball.

Quinn, meanwhile, set up a reading list with Vancouver Public Library (he previously played for the Canucks). It’s a varied list but it offers a few insights into the reading mind of Quinn Hughes, who has said he reads two or three books per month:.

Hughes’ list includes recent titles by John Grisham (“The Judge’s List”), James Patterson (“1^st to Die”) and two by Ken Follett (classic espionage thriller “Eye of the Needle” and “A Place Called Freedom,” which takes place in 1760s London). Those titles scream “pass me the gorp and don’t disturb this hammock for the next couple hours.”

Two titles from Hughes’ list fit in the category sometimes dubbed “explornography,” nonfiction works about people who take big chances. That includes “Where Men Win Glory,” Jon Krakauer’s bestseller about Pat Tillman, who left the NFL to serve in the military, and John U. Bacon’s riveting “The Great Halifax Explosion,” about a devastating shipping accident that shaped the history of the Canadian city.

That could be the reason Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” is on there. Bourdain’s first book is all about what goes on behind the scenes in restaurant kitchens, along with his rules for diners (skip the breadbasket, he famously advises). Or it could be on this list because Bourdain’s later exploits, chronicled on TV, brought him to adventurous places for adventurous eating.

A couple of nonfiction books about sports pop up on Hughes’ list. There’s Daniel James Brown’s megaselling “The Boys in the Boat,” about the against-the-odds efforts of the University of Washington’s rowing team to prepare for the 1936 Olympics (suggesting Hughes also has an eye for Olympics history) and “Moneyball.” Michael Lewis’ book about the Oakland A’s is either a boldly analytic way to view baseball or the tome that has helped wreck the game, depending on how you look at it.