Very funny. ( )

The Man’s Book is a compendium of information that is obscure but highly useful, intermixed with information that is so arcane as to be useless but is nevertheless amusing. Often, they are even the same pieces of information. Eleven sections cover everything from outdoor survival to text message theory to choosing a best man. The chapter on Sports and Games includes both a table showing the optimal loading of weight plates for a barbell, and the rules for playing Beer Pong. The chapter on Dress includes the expected instructions for different methods of tying a necktie, bow tie, or cravat, as well as the proper relationship between the number of dress shirts and trousers that you should own (number of shirts squared equals number of trousers cubed) and how many to pack for a trip. It also instructs you in how to wear your dress shirts when not also wearing a tie; “One open button is safe; two suggests insouciance; three smacks of an Italian playboy.” As for how to wear a top hat (included under Clothes for Weddings), The Man’s Book cautions us that, “Squat crowns [make] you look, if you are not careful, like a doorman at a provincial hotel in Holland.” Perish the thought.

The Man’s Book includes an entire section on Women, beginning with Chivalry, proceeding through Marriage, and ending with Saying Goodbye (not breaking it off, but rather a dictionary or proper closings for correspondence). Yet there is no mention of children or fatherhood. This book does contain many facts that can help a man out in a pinch (“One of the easiest ways of starting a fire is by a magnifying glass. A well-suited specimen is conveniently included with the compact edition of the Oxford English Dictionary….If the OED is not at hand, a simple and effective lens can be constructed from water and Saran wrap.”). But for equally useful fatherhood advice, e.g., how to construct an emergency diaper, dads will have to look elsewhere instead. Review by Book Dads ( )

Thomas Fink’s The Man’s Book is indeed an essential guide for any modern man. Split into broad subject topics, Fink informs men on everything they should know about health, sports/games, women, dress, outdoors, drinking, smoking, cooking, idling, and arts and sciences. Among the numerous topics, a man will learn the benefits of a wet shave versus a dry shave, how to cook a steak, the right wine to serve for any occasion, what suit to wear and when to wear it, what to stock in a kitchen, the equation for the perfect age of a potential bride, how to make a potato gun, and everything one needs to know about the man-of-men James Bond. If you would like to know Morse Code, it is in there. Curious about a few of the best cocktails? You will find them in The Man’s Book. Need to make an origami wallet? Fink shows you how. And if you are having a hard time becoming a modern media man, you can follow the guidelines of the essential books and movies for any male.

There is a lot of humor found in The Man's Book. Fink doesn't approach the topic of manliness and masculinity without a few jokes. I got a good laugh out of the urinal position chart. And the picture guide of beard styles? I laughed out loud, I'll admit. You need to be able to see the humor in being a man or dealing with men to thoroughly enjoy The Man's Book. You will learn everything you want and need to know about quite a few things, so you will miss out if you take life too seriously and put down the book.

It is true that I am not a male and therefore don’t need a guide to become the perfect modern male. But let’s be honest here… most men are never going to learn all of these things for themselves and will thus never know what a man should know. Right? It is just as essential for a woman to know this information as it is for any man because she can-- and most likely will-- help guide him in the right direction. She can make sure he has the right suits, the right tools of hygiene, and the right liquors in the cabinets.

Some of the information is even gender neutral. For example, women love beer and sports and chili, too! Even women need to know about wines and men's clothing and essential spices. It's not like this sort of stuff is born into women. We need a guide for these things as much as a man. As I read The Man's Book, I learned a lot that I can and will use in the future. I knew nothing about wine until now, for example. And I learned all of this with a laugh. The Man's Book is clear and to the point, but not a dry read. I think that The Man's Book is a great reference for anyone to have on their shelf. I am keeping my copy on an easy to reach shelf just in case my boyfriend needs to know what to wear or I need to know which wine to serve with my meal. ( )

So I admit, I originally picked up this book on a lark — the publisher’s description makes the book sound like it’s filled with pick-up lines, bar jokes and how to burp the alphabet. I was intrigued at this rare look into the male psyche and figured that, if nothing else, it’d be amusing.

What the publisher’s description doesn’t tell you is that Thomas Fink, the author of The Man’s Book, is a theoretical physicist at the Curie Institute/CNRS and the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and he wrote this book in his spare time (although, amusingly enough, Fink took his own author photo to be displayed on the back of the book, and it’s a total MySpace picture… and it looks like it was taken in an airplane bathroom mirror). Check out the author’s website and you’ll get an idea of the tone and style of Fink’s writing.

Instead of cheesy pick-up lines, I found an entire 13-page chapter devoted to women, including sections on to chivalry (apparently it’s not dead), first date etiquette and marriage. Instead of bar jokes, I found a very sophisticated section on drinking that explained nearly every type of wine, beer, spirit or liqueur and its application with or without food. And instead of teaching the reader how to burp the alphabet, Fink has included an entire section on urinal etiquette and, to make sure the rules hit home, a 67-question quiz on where to stand at the urinal to ensure optimal privacy.

Some of my favorite sections include: “Underwear,” where the eternal question of boxers versus briefs is looked at scientifically to find out whom the ultimate victor shall be; a section explaining how to properly brew coffee, which includes a chart showing the caffeine content of popular beverages (did you know that Coca-Cola has the least caffeine content of the major pop brands, including its no-calorie counterpart, Diet Coke?); a page full of men’s superlatives (including Best Advice: “Never apologize,” and Best Beer: Westvleteren 12); and even a list of the 50 most essential books for men.

Overall, this book was just really cool. I learned a lot — not necessarily about men, but just random little facts. And I love learning random things. What really struck me about the book, though, was how sincere and sound most of the advice was. It kind of struck me as a book you’d give to a young man who is just coming of age and will need to know these things growing up (Bar Mitzvah gift, anyone?), or to a boy who’s going to college. But really, it’s just a fun book for any man (or woman) to read. Maybe you’ll pick up some new trivia to show off next time you’re at the bar, who knows?

Those visiting Literophilia from another country may be wondering why I’m writing about this book now, since it isn’t new. But it’s new to us Yankees! Expanded, revised and retypeset, this is the first time that The Man’s Book will be available in America. According to the author himself, “New features include 16 more sections, 35 more figures and numerically indexed sections and subsections. ( )

I wish I had this book before our last party, during which a very tense confrontation erupted over a political issue. I could have whipped out the book and asked, “Okay, who knows the mathematical equation that enables you to pick the best urinal to use in the men’s room?” Or, “who can name the 50 essential guy movies?”

This book has lots of useful such data for a party, or for people in general (and not just men!) (except maybe for the urinal section). We have several of these types of books (I’m always looking to tutor my husband in The Ways of the Male), and this one has the most up-to-date info of any, such as useful websites and text messaging shorthand.

You can also learn how to play darts, how to tie a tie (all kinds), how to tie a knot, how to select a beer, how to start a fire in the woods, and how to hold your cigarette. There’s an explanation of male pattern baldness, and the optimal way to load plates for weight lifting. There is a section on advice for handling women, but it’s all very chivalrous, and is unsimilar to the Advice Column in Playboy.

Some of this book would make for exceptional party fun: for example, a whole list of superlatives, such as best cocktail, best car, hottest chili pepper, best endurance sport, and so on, that’s bound to get a conversation going. There’s even a whole section on everything you could ever want to know about that quintessential male, James Bond.

The book is fun and informative; my only quibble with these books (and I include almanacs in this category) is that there’s just no good way to remember all the different kinds of data you can find there, and so unless you keep them always open and in use, you’ll miss out on a lot. Would it ever occur to you, for example, that “The Man’s Book” might contain a list of Saints’ Days or when to expect meteor showers?

I don’t know how to solve that problem, except to leave the book in a place where you can consult it often, such as the coffee table or the bathroom (not however, if you go in public, since as far as I could tell from the Rules of Conduct in Public Bathrooms, this is not something you do there).

I looked up the author, and discovered on his webpage that he is a physicist in London. He has fun science facts and puzzles on his page, presumably for those who are Manly enough not to be threatened by engaging in nerdy activities.

And so, now I’m off to test my husband and see if he knows how many nautical miles are in a league at sea or how to assemble a spud gun. If he can pass a few of these tests on being a Modern Man, maybe I’ll clue him in about the author’s web page! ( )