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How to Be a Person

The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself

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Paperback
$16.95 US
5.47"W x 7.45"H x 0.56"D   | 10 oz | 52 per carton
On sale Aug 07, 2012 | 272 Pages | 978-1-57061-778-2
From Dan Savage, Lindy West, and The Stranger staff comes this hilarious guide to life for college students and beyond. Here is all the information you actually need to know that no one else will tell you including: which majors to avoid, how to not get a STD, everything there is to know about philosophy (in a single paragraph!), what the music you like says about you, how to turn a crush into something more, how to come out (should you happen to be gay), how to binge drink and not die, how do laundry, how to do drugs (and which ones you should never do), good manners, tips on flirting with film nerds, how to write a great sentence, and a state-by-state guide to the U.S. of A. It's all here, along with Dan Savage's very best advice about sex and love. Hi!
"If you're holding this book, standing there at a bookstore, wondering if a book like this is a dumb idea, open it up and you'll soon admit this book is very funny, lacking in all bullshit, and never dumb. If you're holding this book, presuming it to be funny and smart and lacking in bullshit, you will be glad to know it is all those things, but it also tells the truth. About 4 or 5 books a year tell the truth, and this is one of them."
Dave Eggers

"
I went into college armed only with a trash bag used as luggage, a boom box held together with duct tape, and a battered 1965 Chevy. I so needed this guide back then. I am jealous of people who have it now."
Sherman Alexie

"Suck it, Proust. This book about stuff is much better than those things you wrote."
Gary Shteyngart

"You may have read every college guidebook on the market, but it's pretty much guaranteed that none of them will tell you the things you really need to know about university life . . . How To Be A Person, written by Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, and Bethany Jean Clement, will give you advice on everything you were too embarrassed to ask about."
The Huffington Post

"Don't be fooled by the bitingly funny humor. This guide teaches simple tasks like how to wash socks, make tacos and not commit a heinous mistake on an English paper as well as how to face complicated situations such as deciding whether to experiment with illegal drugs, choosing an area of the United States to call home or coming out of the closet."
Shelf Awareness 

"It could become an underground Bible for all incoming freshmen..."
New York Post 

"…just as you should not read this book if you already know how to be a person, you probably should read it if you don't."
LA Weekly

"…may just be the first essential guide to university life since Animal House."
The Snipe News

"The all-purpose guide to your formative years, or, should you come to this later, reformative years. …if you take to Savage Love's sass-with-a-conscience, you'll find no better one-stop guide to … well, life itself."
The Current

"How To Be A Person should become required reading for anyone entering into the realm of academia or even just leaving home for the first time."
The Charlatan

"This book is immensely readable. ... The college population would feel a lot more enlightened, and get laid a hell of a lot more, if they listened to Savage. For that alone, you should get this book."
The Campus Companion

"Don’t be fooled by the title. How To Be A Person: The Stranger’s Guide To College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos And Life Itself is not a college guide at all, but rather a guide to being a cool human being while attending school."
NOW Toronto
Lindy West writes about movies, movie stars, exclamation points, lady stuff, large frightening fish, and more. You may have witnessed her single-handedly putting an end to the Sex and the City movie series. Lindy's work also appears in GQ, New York magazine, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the New York Daily News, Deadspin.com, and other places. View titles by Lindy West
Dan Savage writes the sex-and-relationship advice column "Savage Love." He is also the founder of the It Gets Better Project and editorial director of The Stranger. View titles by Dan Savage
Christopher Frizzelle joined The Stranger as the literary editor in 2003 and became editor in chief in 2007 at the age of 27. He has written about hunting for magic mushrooms in the wild, the effect of 9/11 on his military family, and creepy old buildings, among other topics. He curates literary cabarets in nightclubs and hosts a regular silent-reading party in a hotel lobby. View titles by Christopher Frizzelle
Bethany Jean Clement writes about eating food, knowing cows (and eating them), drinking drinks, and more. Her work has appeared in the Best Food Writing anthologies, Food & Wine,Town & Country, Gourmet.com,Beard House, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., and elsewhere. She is the managing editor of The Stranger. View titles by Bethany Jean Clement
The Staff of The Stranger View titles by The Staff of The Stranger

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About

From Dan Savage, Lindy West, and The Stranger staff comes this hilarious guide to life for college students and beyond. Here is all the information you actually need to know that no one else will tell you including: which majors to avoid, how to not get a STD, everything there is to know about philosophy (in a single paragraph!), what the music you like says about you, how to turn a crush into something more, how to come out (should you happen to be gay), how to binge drink and not die, how do laundry, how to do drugs (and which ones you should never do), good manners, tips on flirting with film nerds, how to write a great sentence, and a state-by-state guide to the U.S. of A. It's all here, along with Dan Savage's very best advice about sex and love. Hi!

Praise

"If you're holding this book, standing there at a bookstore, wondering if a book like this is a dumb idea, open it up and you'll soon admit this book is very funny, lacking in all bullshit, and never dumb. If you're holding this book, presuming it to be funny and smart and lacking in bullshit, you will be glad to know it is all those things, but it also tells the truth. About 4 or 5 books a year tell the truth, and this is one of them."
Dave Eggers

"
I went into college armed only with a trash bag used as luggage, a boom box held together with duct tape, and a battered 1965 Chevy. I so needed this guide back then. I am jealous of people who have it now."
Sherman Alexie

"Suck it, Proust. This book about stuff is much better than those things you wrote."
Gary Shteyngart

"You may have read every college guidebook on the market, but it's pretty much guaranteed that none of them will tell you the things you really need to know about university life . . . How To Be A Person, written by Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, and Bethany Jean Clement, will give you advice on everything you were too embarrassed to ask about."
The Huffington Post

"Don't be fooled by the bitingly funny humor. This guide teaches simple tasks like how to wash socks, make tacos and not commit a heinous mistake on an English paper as well as how to face complicated situations such as deciding whether to experiment with illegal drugs, choosing an area of the United States to call home or coming out of the closet."
Shelf Awareness 

"It could become an underground Bible for all incoming freshmen..."
New York Post 

"…just as you should not read this book if you already know how to be a person, you probably should read it if you don't."
LA Weekly

"…may just be the first essential guide to university life since Animal House."
The Snipe News

"The all-purpose guide to your formative years, or, should you come to this later, reformative years. …if you take to Savage Love's sass-with-a-conscience, you'll find no better one-stop guide to … well, life itself."
The Current

"How To Be A Person should become required reading for anyone entering into the realm of academia or even just leaving home for the first time."
The Charlatan

"This book is immensely readable. ... The college population would feel a lot more enlightened, and get laid a hell of a lot more, if they listened to Savage. For that alone, you should get this book."
The Campus Companion

"Don’t be fooled by the title. How To Be A Person: The Stranger’s Guide To College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos And Life Itself is not a college guide at all, but rather a guide to being a cool human being while attending school."
NOW Toronto

Author

Lindy West writes about movies, movie stars, exclamation points, lady stuff, large frightening fish, and more. You may have witnessed her single-handedly putting an end to the Sex and the City movie series. Lindy's work also appears in GQ, New York magazine, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the New York Daily News, Deadspin.com, and other places. View titles by Lindy West
Dan Savage writes the sex-and-relationship advice column "Savage Love." He is also the founder of the It Gets Better Project and editorial director of The Stranger. View titles by Dan Savage
Christopher Frizzelle joined The Stranger as the literary editor in 2003 and became editor in chief in 2007 at the age of 27. He has written about hunting for magic mushrooms in the wild, the effect of 9/11 on his military family, and creepy old buildings, among other topics. He curates literary cabarets in nightclubs and hosts a regular silent-reading party in a hotel lobby. View titles by Christopher Frizzelle
Bethany Jean Clement writes about eating food, knowing cows (and eating them), drinking drinks, and more. Her work has appeared in the Best Food Writing anthologies, Food & Wine,Town & Country, Gourmet.com,Beard House, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co., and elsewhere. She is the managing editor of The Stranger. View titles by Bethany Jean Clement
The Staff of The Stranger View titles by The Staff of The Stranger

Media

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