Review:
Well, that was fun and enlightening. I love etiquette books, and am neutral on advice columnists in general except for Daniel Ortberg's Dear Prudence. But then there's that whole other aspect: the how-to-do-anything-better field is one I appreciate. Paradoxically, I have never been a fan of the Self-Help book genre. Yes, I think there is a great deal we can all learn from the billions of other people in the world, many of whom have struggled with the same issues and also, at the same time, skeptical of the idea that reading a book is ever going to really turn anyone's life around. Mari Kondo has much to teach me about how to best put things away, for example, but neither her book nor show is going to convince me to spend a month finding every book in the house and putting it into one big pile in order to hold each one and wait for the spirit to move me in a joy spark or not way.
Much of the historical stuff was completely unknown to me. I had heard of Poor Richard's Almanack, but knew next to nothing about Franklin or his publishing. I knew of Graham, but Alcott was a surprise. Etcetera.
Clever and also entertaining.
Library copy
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