Bryan Danielson talks about his love of reading and names some of his favorite books

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson talked about his love of reading and some of the books he has enjoyed. Danielson will face Hangman Page in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup tournament on AEW Dynamite on Wednesday. Here are the highlights:

On broadening one’s horizons through reading: “This applies to everything I do, especially wrestling. It is an activity that I really enjoy.”

What he’s been reading lately: “If I wasn’t a wrestler, I would spend my life writing short stories,” Danielson said. “But I couldn’t do it nearly as well as Ted Chiang. I’m constantly reading different poems. Right now I’m reading Ted Chiang’s book of short stories, ‘Exhalation by Ted Chiang,’ which is incredibly interesting. And I usually read 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 consequences of children’s smartphone use. I expected it to take a more alarmist approach, and it is a little alarmist, but I think it’s very balanced.”

About the world from Garp’s perspective: “I love this book. I read it in one day in 2003 at the New Japan Dojo. We had done a show at the Tokyo Dome in early May and Rocky and I were there for the Super Juniors tournament. There were only about 10 days between them, so they let us train at the dojo. We had one day off at the dojo, but I didn’t want to spend any money. I went for a walk and stayed in my room the rest of the day reading The World According to Garp. It was a big book – but I couldn’t put it down.”