John Bridges and Bryan Curtis offer a succinct guidebook targeted towards the young and clueless: 50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know: What to Do, When to Do It, and Why. It’s certainly a tidy little volume, with 200 pages of guidelines in an almost-pocketable 5×8 inch format. It covers the basics from saying “please” and “thank you,” proper silverware & napkin management, asking permission, giving compliments, tying a tie, accepting bad gifts, opening the door for people, and it even covers topics like “winning well.” Each section comes with a tidy format:
- A description of the situation
- You Do
- You Don’t
- Why
If I have any complaint, it is only that the book is a little boring. The book reads like it was aimed for those perhaps 12Äì16 years old, but most of the humor fell a bit flat. And I’m not sure why a middle-schooler would be reading an etiquette book, anyway. But those who do find it will hopefully learn a little something. It only takes maybe a half hour to get through it, so never hurts to have a little refresher on what you should have learned already.
Mark Larson 