Last Thursday I visited Drake's again for the book signing event of David Coggins' latest publication -- 'Men and Manners'.
It was a great event really; especially since I could meet the man himself at last and many other familiar faces of the industry, as well as catching up with some mates.
Anyway, I have to emphasize it is equally exciting to finally pick up the book and have a read to see what insights would the knowledgable author has to offer concerning the talk of manners.
Similar to his previous book 'Men and Style', Coggins' latest publication is an excellent piece which you could just jump back anytime to read without losing track on the progress.
The reason for this has to largely due to the fact that it consists of many short articles as well as a handful collection of advices from respectable men in the field, allowing the chapters to be loosely connected and easy to pick up.
On top of that, the book is also carefully divided into multiple chapters, with each addressing how to be well-behaved on a particular aspect of life. (picture below)
While remaining simple and organized; the content of Men and Manners could be quite specific as well.
This is perhaps best exemplified by how Coggins goes on suggesting how certain social media platforms should be used, to where to purchase a gift for the host of a party in New York City .
To some extent, the specificity of the book inevitably limited the targeted audience to a small group of people (most likely young chaps in their 20s-30s) over in East Coast US, or simply those who are frequent travelers.
Yet, if we leave these particular geographic references aside, Coggins still offers some useful advice on how we should act in this age of 'informality'.
After all, what we need more than anything else in the era where 'casualness' could be used as a justification to abandon the basic decency is an explicit voice to engage in a conversation with us on how some of our everyday acts could be performed more appropriately, so that we could rethink on how to be more considerate.
As a matter fact, this book could not have been any better shall this particular language had not been used.
All in all, I would say, Men and Manners is certainly one of the more enjoyable books which raises awareness on the importance of good manners without over-doing it. Without spoiling too much content, I'll leave it as it is right here.
Finally, click here to check out David Coggins’ Instagram profile.