Our Daily Glass | Kingsley Amis, Merrily Harpur

Are you interested in oenology but hate "wine snobs"? Do you want to impress your guests while being completely broke and/or stingy? Do you not know how to handle your hangover? Do you want to lose weight without reducing your alcohol consumption? Do you want to shine in society and put down your pretentious friends a bit? This book is for you! With these texts and columns written in the 1970s and 1980s, Kingsley Amis distills with a very British humor his passionate and subjective knowledge (because "when it comes to alcohol, subjectivity is paramount") on the art of drinking. He provides cocktail recipes that he either invented (including the Lucky Jim, from his eponymous bestseller) or improved, erudite and hilarious considerations on alcohols from around the world, advice on essential tools to have in your mini bar, recommendations on dishes to pair with different wines (or other alcohols, as he does not understand the supremacy of wine in social dinners). He even offers a quiz at the end of the book, asking the reader, for example, to name three types of Italian wines, to roughly date the invention of vodka, or to mention a liqueur containing naartjie, a type of Asian mandarin. In a consistently tongue-in-cheek tone, Amis allows us to learn without appearing to do so. "Everyday Drinking" is a resolutely "Chap" book, which is enjoyable to read and will delight all bon vivants, alcohol enthusiasts (even wine) and lovers of good humor.