For years, Andrew Luck has been making reading recommendations to teammates. Now he is ready to pass them on to you.
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback opened the Andrew Luck Book Club with the launch of a website Monday.
"I've been called the unofficial librarian of the Colts, which is kind of cheesy," Luck said. "But the truth is that I love to read both fiction and nonfiction and I feel strongly about the power of reading. So I thought, 'Why not start a real book club?'"
Luck is offering books in two categories: "Rookies," with selections that he loved to read when he was younger, and "Veterans," with choices from his adult life.
The first Rookie book is "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli. The 1990 book features an orphaned boy who excels at athletics.
"I loved this book throughout my childhood," Luck said. "I actually still read it."
His first book for adults is Daniel James Brown's "Boys in the Boat," a New York Times best-seller about the U.S. Olympic rowing team in 1936.
"I got this from my Oma [German for grandmother] for Christmas one year, and it's just an incredible snapshot of life during the Great Depression and the integrity of sport with the Games obviously in Nazi Germany," Luck said.
Luck said he plans to interact with readers through question-and-answer sessions and is launching social media feeds to facilitate dialogue. Luck has largely steered away from social media to this point.
Luck and his uncle Will Wilson, who is also his agent, set up a business entity for the book club, but making money isn't a motivation, Luck said.
"I just want people to experience the joy that I do when I read," he said.
The Stanford graduate has been known to hand out books on wide-ranging topics to his teammates. Two years ago, Luck lent center Khaled Holmes "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson. He later gave Nikos Kazantzakis' "Zorba the Greek" to Holmes.
"He knew I liked the movie and I was half-Greek," Holmes said. "He's definitely well-read, and his recommendations are pretty good."