As the many tags indicate, this compilation is many things all mashed up together. Worth seeking out the expanded (original) versions of books 1 and 3: the fussy man bit ("precision living," as someone else tagged it) and the philosophical/ethics one. The part where he experiences a split personality as he wallows in his privilege was a bit much. ( )

I once worked with a group of software engineers who were so fussy, they would wall off their office windows with silver foil. This is the book I turned to as I tried to 'be one' with my co-workers. It didn't make my office group more lovable, but it did make me laugh enough to appreciate their, uhm, fussiness.

This book was published in the early 1970s, so there are chapters on ashtrays, smoking, drinking, and fixing those old TV sets. Still, it's a good laugh. My favorite was the Dyscohesion of Companionable Groups. This is the syndrome where children become upset (like software engineers) when they end up sitting next to or riding with people that aren't fun. This is explained as one of LIFE'S CRUEL TRUTHS. The fun people are never next to you.

And that's how I handled my engineer team.

Book Season = Year Round (when the geeks read) ( )

I worked for Mr. Hills here in Key West in his last year and spent a fair amount of time kicking myself for not reading his book until after he died. I think he would have been amused by my enthusiasm for his book. I loved his final idea for how to fix the world, i.e. dismantle everything and recreate the past till we get the country back to "The Good Old Days"!!! He goes into such practical detail about this scheme, I found myself thinking that this is totally realistic. Anyway, I thought the book was hilarious, but then, I'm extremely fussy myself!! I came to admire him and the way he lived a great deal. Simply, eleagantly, surrounded by books and doing his impossibly complicated jig-saw puzzles.

Originally published in three separate parts. In the first section, “How to Do Things Right,” Hills gives directions for a lot of silly things, like “How to Eat an Ice Cream Cone,” and some not so silly ones, like “How to Cut Down on Drinking and Smoking” (where he is not nearly so smugly sure he’s got it right).
In “How to Retire at 41,” Hills describes his own retirement. He was a successful fiction editor of Esquire during its heyday of fiction publishing, and he later worked for the Saturday Evening Post. He bought a place in the country and retired. Then he proceeded to alienate his family and friends and nearly drink himself to death. Altogether, this is a mixed bag, but Hills makes some interesting observations, such as one difficulty in retiring: the pursuits one adopts are either those of the upper class (yachting, golf, skiing and so on) or those fo the lower class (building things, making household repairs or renovations), while the middle class doesn’t seem to have leisure pursuits; what the middle class does is work.
In the last section, “How to Be Good,” Hills enquires into personal ethics or morals, without benefit of the literature—scorning, for instance, Kant’s categorical imperative, willfully misunderstanding it. He decides that one has to be somewhat detached. ( )

18. How To Do Things Right: The Revelations of a Fussy Man by Mr. L. Rust Hills.
Ah, this was a mixed bag. It's a collection of humorous essays, about how to do things the right way -- from small things like eating an ice cream cone to larger issues like planning an early retirement. There is a lot of humor in here, but most of the time the author is overplaying his hand. These are the sorts of topics that would be funnier if they were more understated, in large part, I think, because most people have experience with at least one fussy man so you're going in already thinking the situation is worthy of humor. Oh, and a note that it's also a little dated ... in some ways, that was the most intriguing part. Episodes include what makes a successful dinner party in the early 1970s ... and I was a little fearful it was going to enter swinging territory. It didn't, but the book gives you the feeling it could have.

Grade: B-
Recommended: Not very strongly, but it's okay if you have a particular interest in Rust Hills, who was the fiction editor for Esquire before Gordon Lish, and all-around American lit guy. I also just now this moment realized that he might still be alive, because I don't remember hearing about him dying. That always seems eerie, as if he came back from the dead before my eyes.