How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself Paperback - 2012

Media reviews

"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 -- like how to survive a hangover, and how to make tacos. 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

"From the writers and editors of The Stranger comes a true, real-life guide to conquering life on your own, covering a range of topics (such as majors to avoid, how to do laundry and everything you need to know about philosophy in a single paragraph) with no-holds-barred realism."
Seattle

"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. Reassuring, practical and thorough, How to Be a Person is perfect for any recent high school or college graduate."
Shelf Awareness 

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

"This brand-spanking-new book gives funny, no-bullshit advice on the full gamut of college life, from making friends and getting along with roommates to sex, drugs, politics, and, you know, learning stuff about stuff so that you can get a job and hopefully not have to move back home and work at the car wash and ask all the neighborhood high school kids, 'hey, guys, where’s the cool parties this weekend?'"
MamaPop.com

"…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. There are quite a few things in here that most college grads surely wish they'd realized at 18. …Really, this is a great book for someone who knows how to be a person to buy for someone who doesn'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. There’s a lot of value even for those that have been away at school for a few years as well. Reading the knowledge contained within this book might even convince you that you’re looking forward to the return of classes."
The Charlatan

"This book is immensely readable. I found myself reading it at work, at dinner, even while driving (kidding) It begs to be picked up and read in the little cracks of the day where nothing is really happening. …It is chock-full of advice on sexual confusion, drunken escapades, infidelity, and double standards. 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

"Being no-nonsense is a way of life at The Stranger, and How to Be a Person reflects that. The book is divided into sections like 'Different Sexual Positions You Need to Try in College' and 'How (Not) to Be a Foodie', and gives straightforward information plainly and with humour. It’s useful and hilarious."
Prairie Dog

“'How To Be A Person'” has a lot of salient advice for the college and post-college population, from proper drinking advice and realistic advice about drugs to balancing a budget (in the guise of looking at the advice the Bible gives) and doing laundry. It’s all realistic and sometimes quite poignant; the passages on 'What No One Else Will Tell You About Heartbreak and Death' sum up the latter topic in two paragraphs, but they’re two of the most clear-cut and truthful sentences I’ve ever read. To me, it seems that 'How To Be A Person' is vital reading for anyone college-aged who needs a jumpstart in their lives. It’s a fast read, and it’s snappy and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious. At the very least, it’s one of the most realistic advice books on the market for today’s 20-somethings."
The Daily Campus

"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. …this humorous collection that addresses everything from how to handle drugs to how to write well."
NOW Toronto

Citations

• Shelf Awareness, 08/17/2012, Page 0