What a surreal month it’s been. In late February I left the country for two weeks to disconnect and spend time in nature with my family. When I arrived home I returned to a very different world – one with empty shelves, shuttered businesses, and record-setting unemployment. Like everyone else, I’m still adjusting to this new life. I’ve been cooped up in my apartment alone for nearly three weeks now, and have slowly started to lose my mind (along with becoming highly skilled at washing my hands correctly).
I haven’t really been in the mood to write lately, as talking about the nuances of expensive clothing just felt a bit tone deaf. But while I figure out how to write about menswear in this post-apocalyptic world, I thought I would share some of my favorite books that I have turned to over the years to build good skills and habits. They all feel particularly relevant now, since we can’t turn to our community as much – there are no restaurants, gyms, or bars, so we have to be self-sufficient. All these skills are good to have anyway, so why not take some of this ample free time to become proficient in them?
Like with my San Francisco Professionals series, these books all have a common theme – they’re all light on marketing fluff and heavy on data and technique. They’re books that are aimed at teaching you the skills to make your own decisions, rather than simply giving you a bulleted list to follow. All of them have been in constant rotation in my apartment as I’ve slowly learned how to be a functioning adult (though many would say that I’m definitely still learning).
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
I bought this book ten years ago have have loaned it out and rebought it so many times since then that I currently have no idea where my copies are. The first edition was published in early 2009, a time much like today – tumbling stocks, high unemployment, and an uncertain financial future for many of us. Whether you’re just beginning your career or are trying to ensure that you can weather these economically turbulent times, this is an excellent resource for financial literacy. Ramit’s approaches to personal finance are simple to act on, are based on data and research, and take into account the many advantages of today’s online world. It’s the best $9 investment you can make in your future self, as far as I’m concerned. If you end up buying this book and liking it I also recommend Ramit’s website, which goes far and beyond the basics of managing money.
Starting Strength – Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe
Starting Strength is much more than a book about weightlifting routines – it gets in to the minutae of how these movements work, common problems and how to address them, and building your own program. Heck, the chapter on how to do a proper squat has nearly 70 pages to itself. As a structural engineer by trade, this book totally speaks my language. It talks about the body as if it were a simple machine, and uses physics and statics to show how forces move through your body as you move weights around. While most of us probably don’t have access to a barbell and squat rack at the moment, understanding these core movements translates well into bodyweight workouts (as the book clearly lays out). This book will serve as an excellent foundation for building a strength training routine, no matter which direction you end up taking it. There’s also a video series by Art of Manliness that covers the basics, though I still recommend having the book as a resource.
The Food Lab – Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
This is the best cookbook on the market, especially if you’re still getting used to being near a kitchen to begin with. Unlike many blogs and books out there, The Food Lab is largely based on technique and science, making it an invaluable resource for learning how to cook (not just how to read a recipe). Rather relying simply on tradition as a guide for how dishes should be made, Kenji rigorously tests all his theories with the scientific method, which results in better, easier, and more reliable recipes. Do you know the difference between baking soda and baking powder? How to properly cut a shallot? How to make your own ricotta in five minutes? All of the answers are inside this 1000-page tome, along with hundreds of recipes for classic dishes. I’ve read every page of this book numerous times and am constantly turning it to it for information. I even got it signed by the author himself, but that’s another story. This book will make you a better cook, whether you’re already experienced or still figuring out how the stove works. And if you’re looking for more, I highly recommend Serious Eats, where many of these recipes first appeared.
The Bar Book – Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler
All the bars are indefinitely closed, so you might as well learn how to make your own cocktails. Like The Food Lab, The Bar Book is highly technique-driven and is much more holistic than a simple book full of recipes. Jeffrey Morgenthaler – who also runs two of the best bars in Portland – fills this book with many of the tricks that he teaches his own bar staff. It has an entire chapter dedicated to citrus juice, and another to proper shaking and stirring technique. This book will arm you with the skills to be a better bartender, even if that bar is just your living room. Jeffrey Morgenthaler has also runs an excellent blog on cocktails and bartending, which you can find here.
Liquid Intelligence – The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail by Dave Arnold
In Liquid Intelligence, Dave Arnold asks and answers the question, “How would one make the perfect cocktail if time, equipment, and money weren’t limiting factors?” His laser-focused pursuit of perfection leads him to use centrifuges, hot irons rods, and a plethora of gums and acids to achieve stunning results. Although many of his recipes may be more involved than the average home bartender would prefer to invest in, his techniques and data-driven analyses have helped me better understand mixology as a science and realize its full potential. This book is a great resource and source of inspiration for the home bartender, or anyone that appreciates a good drink.
These are strange and uncertain times, but the silver lining is that we all have plenty of time to invest in new skills. I hope that we can all come out of this lockdown with renewed focus and numerous hidden talents, ready to show the world how much we’ve learned while we were locked away. I hope you’re all healthy and safe – we’re all in this one together.
