Book Review: The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man by Brett McKay
I'm a a listener of The Art of Manliness podcast for over a year now and just before my last vacation I decided to buy the book. Partly as a support for the podcast and partly to get my own opinion about it (reviews are really all over the place from 1 to 5 starts on Goodreads).
If you read most critical reviews you will find that Bret McKay draws a lot of inspiration from 19th century gentleman. You can think about your grandfather more than your father kind of man being the inspiration for this book. There is a bunch of practical advice on all kinds of topics from shaving, dressing to raising kids but also a lot of trivia and random facts you won't really need so you have to pick yourself.
There is one annoying quirk of this book though, it tries to explain things with words that should be explained with images. I have skipped most of tying knots and ties for that reason. I've noticed that there's a new book called The Illustrated Art of Manliness: The Essential How-To Guide: Survival • Chivalry • Self-Defense • Style • Car Repair • And More! by Brett McKay which I think is a solution to this problem.
The Art of Manliness introduced me to the idea of man's classic elegance and traditions and it makes it a worth reading for that reason but if you find something interesting then you have to dig dipper by yourself.
One of the ideas in the book is to use safety razor as a traditional method of shaving. Because of this chapter I started reading more about razors, shaving and decided to give it a try (I always used electric shavers). I have to admit that I just found it interesting.
Rating: 7/10, but I would recommend it to all man - especially if you're young.
Want to learn more?
Sign up to get a digest of my articles and interesting links via email every month.