Book Review: The FatMan’s Guide – by Mike Scharff

The full title is:

The FatMan’s Guide to Cooking, Cleaning, and all Things Domestic.

There are exactly two books that I know that you can pick up, open to any random page, start reading and immediately crack up . One is Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” and the other is The FatMan’s Guide.

If you are a graduating college student, about to jump into the world, set up your own little household and join the world of the gainfully employed, probably still single and wholly ignorant about a lot of things, The FatMan’s Guide will make a real difference. While it’s amusing to read, it actually does have a ton of good value hints and advice, from where to hide your Playboy Magazines, to how to shop for a pillow, to what to eat and what not to eat, to getting that date you are lusting after.

I didn’t read this book cover to cover. I don’t think anybody would. It just hung around the house, and I would pick it up occasionally and thumb around and enjoy myself. As such books often do, it ended up in the  basket next to the guest toilet, where – I must admit – a book gets picked up more regularly and more frequently than any other errant book in our household – other than those resident on my Kindle, of course. I would read a chapter or two at a time, in random order. Sometimes, when I’d arrive at an exciting spot, I would take the book back out to the living room with me where I’d continue to read it, magazine style, basically from the back toward the front.

I know the author personally, and like many an artist (if I may include a writer in that category), he is more descriptive and revealing in his writing than when you sit next to him. But then, of course, who wants to sit next to a wise guy in a social situation – since a wise guy he is, you will discover, when you read the book.  A wise guy in the good way.

The main chapters, aside from the introduction and conclusion, are:

  1. Essentials for Basic Survival
  2. Boring, But NECESSARY
  3. Stuff You’ll Want to Have Around
  4. Home Shopping
  5. Meals You Need to Know How to Make
  6. Cleaning Tricks
  7. College Dorm Experience
  8. Urban Camping
  9. Guide to Dating
  10. Appealing to the Opposite Sex

What did I say? It’s got all the stuff you need when you go out on your own. Go and get yours!

Rating: ****

Buy this book on Amazon.

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