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49th out of 158 books
—
236 voters
Everyday Drinking
A gift for anyone who loves good liquor and high-proof prose: a collection of hilarious and deeply informed writings about drink from one of the all-time authorities.
Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on th...more
Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on th...more
118 pages
Published
by Hutchinson
(first published January 1st 2008)
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Apr 26, 2013
Eric
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
bagatelle,
hearts-laid-bare
“Note You really have to use bourbon. The Rye Old-Fashioned is not too bad; the Irish version just tolerable; the Scotch one not worth while.” Exactly. And never mind the rye snobs suddenly all about, I was once twitted by my best friend’s wife for not specifying brandy – because that’s how the Old-Fashioned was made in 1890s New Orleans, you see. She has a meaty ass, big long-toed feet, and she paints. I loathe her in an amiable, intermittently lustful, sitcom-like way.
There’s not much to do b...more
There’s not much to do b...more
13 likes · like · see review
view all 5 comments
Aug 12, 2008
Andrew
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
alcoholics, high-functioning alcoholics, drunks, alcophiliacs, the curious
This cute recollection of Kingsley Amis' newspaper columns on the life of a professional drunk is edited by Christopher Hitchens (friend of son Martin and resident avatar of English alcoholism in American letters). The writing is gin-saturated -- themes recurring in their wet wit seem half-remembered; the prose seems dictated, with the loose, conversational imprecision of a drunk and self-satisfied autodidact. But what else would you want, let alone expect, from a collection of brief High Englis...more
5 likes · like · see review
let's allow a great 20th century dandy and wit to review this book better than i ever could...
Here is a story about a sinner,
He used to be a winner, who enjoyed a life of prominence and position.
But the pressures at the office and his socialite engagements,
And his selfish wife's fanatical ambition,
It turned him to the booze,
And he got mixed up with a floosie
And she led him to a life of indecision.
The floosie made him spend his dough
She left him lying on skid row
A drunken lag in some salvation a...more
Here is a story about a sinner,
He used to be a winner, who enjoyed a life of prominence and position.
But the pressures at the office and his socialite engagements,
And his selfish wife's fanatical ambition,
It turned him to the booze,
And he got mixed up with a floosie
And she led him to a life of indecision.
The floosie made him spend his dough
She left him lying on skid row
A drunken lag in some salvation a...more
5 likes · like · see review
Kingsley Amis was notorious for liking a good drink. He was a Scotch man, but found ways to appreciate all drink. Except maybe wine. He was self-admittedly clueless about wine. Shame. This book is a collection of his boozy writings, and even a pub-style trivia quiz section.
Of most interest to my bookish friends is the section "Hangover Reading." Seriously, this book is worth it just for his literature rundown. To whet your appetite, he mentions Paradise Lost and One Day in the Life of Ivan Deni...more
Of most interest to my bookish friends is the section "Hangover Reading." Seriously, this book is worth it just for his literature rundown. To whet your appetite, he mentions Paradise Lost and One Day in the Life of Ivan Deni...more
1 like · like · see review
Had I been sentient (and British) during the 1970s, I'm sure I would have been a huge admirer of Amis's weekly newspaper musings on the art and science of drinking. I can definitely see how the constituent parts of this book would work well as columns.
But they fall flat in the anthology format, in large part because Amis is so darn repetitious. We hear the same bon mots re: Scotch time and again, for example. And the first third of the book contains nothing save for wittily phrased drink recipes...more
But they fall flat in the anthology format, in large part because Amis is so darn repetitious. We hear the same bon mots re: Scotch time and again, for example. And the first third of the book contains nothing save for wittily phrased drink recipes...more
I truly believe you need only two drinks books in your life: one that tells you about every drink you could possibly make, and one that tells you about what you would want to drink. The first is useful in the case that an honored guest asks for a Detroit Motor City or something (I live in fear of moments like this); the second, while narrower in scope, is infinitely more practical because everything in it is actually good.
Everyday Drinking has captured a permanent spot as my second-category book...more
Everyday Drinking has captured a permanent spot as my second-category book...more
Jan 07, 2009
Stop
added it
Read the STOP SMILING review of Everyday Drinking:
Like Death, the Hangover has regretfully confounded the scientific community in its efforts to develop a satisfactory cure. This fact has not stopped thousands of amateurs from prescribing imaginative remedies, suggesting that hangovers remain less an evil to be vanquished than a fruitful topic of conversation among quaffers, given that they can in fact be avoided simply by not drinking too much.
The subject has likely never received as detailed a...more
Like Death, the Hangover has regretfully confounded the scientific community in its efforts to develop a satisfactory cure. This fact has not stopped thousands of amateurs from prescribing imaginative remedies, suggesting that hangovers remain less an evil to be vanquished than a fruitful topic of conversation among quaffers, given that they can in fact be avoided simply by not drinking too much.
The subject has likely never received as detailed a...more
I don't often laugh out loud at books. Perhaps it's because I don't typically read funny books. But Amis' Everyday Drinking had me giggling like a kid, almost more often than I'm comfortable bragging about, and annoying my partner by reading passages aloud and frequently quoting my new knowledge about both alcohol and Britishisms, both of which we both enjoy.
To extend a metaphor, Everyday Drinking contains both long drinks and short drinks, and its not suitable for consuming all in one long str...more
To extend a metaphor, Everyday Drinking contains both long drinks and short drinks, and its not suitable for consuming all in one long str...more
I became acquainted with Kingsley Amis while reading an article by Dick Cavett in the NY Times. Mr. Amis is an avowed drinker ("Is there too much Scotch? Never, while I’m alive") and, after reading his book, I believe that this would qualify as a binge. This book is actually a compilation of three books, but, for me, its joy is in his advice on acoholic beverages, his personal accounts of imbibing and his trashing of certain drinks.
Amis deals with the detrimenttal effects of alcohol. He divides...more
Amis deals with the detrimenttal effects of alcohol. He divides...more
I joked with a family member who asked what I was going to read next that I hoped this was going to be a "how to" book. While it could conceivably be followed in some instances, Everyday Drinking is actually a collection of three smaller books that themselves were collections of the newspaper writings on alcohol by Kingsley Amis, more famous as the author of such novels as Lucky Jim and The Green Man, although it is pretty apparent from this book that he was more than familiar with the artistic...more
I wouldn't use this book as toilet paper if I had volcanically explosive habanero curry diarrhea and this was the last absorbent substance left on earth.
This is the worst book I have ever read. Of course, "book" is a strong word to use in describing it because the last 150pp. of its 350pp. consist of a quiz. That's right, a multiple-choice test. Are you fucking KIDDING me?
Now, when there's a book that I end up loathing but also unfortunately have purchased for myself, I put it in a special "ref...more
This is the worst book I have ever read. Of course, "book" is a strong word to use in describing it because the last 150pp. of its 350pp. consist of a quiz. That's right, a multiple-choice test. Are you fucking KIDDING me?
Now, when there's a book that I end up loathing but also unfortunately have purchased for myself, I put it in a special "ref...more
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'd heard about this book for years and finally got down to reading it. It's easy to see where Martin Amis got his wit. Kingsley intersperses hilarious alcohol-related short stories, along with his own well-tested recipes – some named after his famous novels, like “Lucky Jim,” and others named after friends, like “Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver” – and rather helpful musings on subjects like The Hangover (“a piece of selfless research, undertaken by a pioneer”), T...more
Kingsley Amis' "Everyday Drinking" is a collection of three volumes the
late novelist wrote on the subject of booze. One of those volumes is,
itself, a collection of newspaper columns on the subject. At times, it is amusing and educating. Other times, it drones on and on about cocktails and his theories on mixed drinks -- a subject I have little interest in. Amis was a hard liquor man, which I respect and appreciate, especially as he held that good whiskey, scotch, bourbon, etc., is to be drunk wi...more
late novelist wrote on the subject of booze. One of those volumes is,
itself, a collection of newspaper columns on the subject. At times, it is amusing and educating. Other times, it drones on and on about cocktails and his theories on mixed drinks -- a subject I have little interest in. Amis was a hard liquor man, which I respect and appreciate, especially as he held that good whiskey, scotch, bourbon, etc., is to be drunk wi...more
Jun 09, 2009
Iris
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
bloggers (for a lesson in brevity), alcoholophiles
Recommended to Iris by:
NYT Book Review
Shelves:
cuisine
This book compiles Kingsley's Saturday morning newspaper columns, which tread and re-tread about three topics, delightful in small doses:
- the art of being a miser who nevertheless gives his guests the impression of being a delightful host (groaning and procrastinating when anyone asks for a drink involving good booze, floating a teaspoon of gin atop tonic water, instead of mixing a true gin-tonic, etc.)
- the hangover
- the tiresomeness of wine, with short guides to choosing it anyways
The finest...more
- the art of being a miser who nevertheless gives his guests the impression of being a delightful host (groaning and procrastinating when anyone asks for a drink involving good booze, floating a teaspoon of gin atop tonic water, instead of mixing a true gin-tonic, etc.)
- the hangover
- the tiresomeness of wine, with short guides to choosing it anyways
The finest...more
This is a reprint of three of Kingsley Amis's classic gin-soaked volumes:
On Drink
,
How's Your Glass
(a quiz book), and
Every Day Drinking
(a title that boy Martin found clever if not hilarious, and which remains a source of confusion here on GoodReads [as it's apparently merged with this here collection:]).
Amis appears here in three boozy guises: mixologist, advice columnist, and know-it-all. All are witty and fascinating -- even when he's phoning it in, his prose is taut and immaculate. Th...more
Amis appears here in three boozy guises: mixologist, advice columnist, and know-it-all. All are witty and fascinating -- even when he's phoning it in, his prose is taut and immaculate. Th...more
Amis’ varied and instructive writings on drinking have been gathered in this book with a brief introduction by fellow expert Christopher Hitchens. A lot of it was written as newspaper columns so it can be assumed that there was a sizable and interested readership at the time - seventies and eighties - in Britain.
He is a man of definite opinions and prejudices about all things alcoholic and though some information seems dated (the prices he quotes are certainly from another age) and even touching...more
He is a man of definite opinions and prejudices about all things alcoholic and though some information seems dated (the prices he quotes are certainly from another age) and even touching...more
With an introduction by The Hitch. (Customers who bought this item also bought - unsurprisingly - Amy Winehouse's Back to Black). There is, supposedly, a recipe for a bloody mary in here that incorporates ketchup...
Everyday Drinking is actually a compilation of three works – On Drink, Every Day Drinking and How's Your Glass?. The first is a short book on, well, drink, the second a collection of columns he wrote for a paper, and the third a quiz book. The introduction to this compilation is written by the inimitable Christopher Hitchens, which itself qualifies as a selling point.
On these pages, Kingsley Amis opines on beer, booze and wine, on drinking habits and everything else related. His style is erudite...more
On these pages, Kingsley Amis opines on beer, booze and wine, on drinking habits and everything else related. His style is erudite...more
I was hooked by the title and could not put this book down. Part cocktail recipe book, part drinker's how-to, and part emphatic manifesto of an all-but-disappeared class of British citizens, Everyday Drinking is drier than a Churchill martini and equally as potent. Though he covers a few topics a few times- a bi-product of the drinking every day no doubt- (in reality, Everyday Drinking is a collection of 3 smaller volumes of Amis' work, hence the twice- and thrice-trodden areas) each time is as...more
Possibly I should have shelf labeled Books I Have Read Because Christopher Hitchens Told Me To. Hitchens knew the author in life and provides the introduction to this omnibus of three of Amis' works.
Overall I enjoyed the first two books and found the third skimable. It should be mentioned that the author was an un-apologetic booze hound, those seeking temprance will not find it here. In this and other regards the book is dated, but the voice is so strong and charming it is still a fun read.
And o...more
Overall I enjoyed the first two books and found the third skimable. It should be mentioned that the author was an un-apologetic booze hound, those seeking temprance will not find it here. In this and other regards the book is dated, but the voice is so strong and charming it is still a fun read.
And o...more
Kingsley Amis cut a controversial figure, certainly later in life, when the copious quantities of booze he imbibed in the course of that life got to him. They were people who loved him, and many who did not.
On the basis of this volume, a collection of three flimsy books on drinks and drinking he wrote during his fifties and sixties, count me in with the many.
He had the reputation of being a “connoisseur”, and a wit. Why, I haven’t the foggiest.
To me, he sounds like a bluffing Know-Nothing, and...more
On the basis of this volume, a collection of three flimsy books on drinks and drinking he wrote during his fifties and sixties, count me in with the many.
He had the reputation of being a “connoisseur”, and a wit. Why, I haven’t the foggiest.
To me, he sounds like a bluffing Know-Nothing, and...more
There are some writers, hugely popular in their time that rapidly fall from popular favour. W Somerset Maugham is one, and I suspect Kingsley Amis has already become another. It's work that dates quickly perhaps because it seems so tied to the era in which it was written. If you've had to suffer the work of his son, you've got to think that's a bit of a shame - I'm not sure Kingsley was a great writer, but he was a funny one; and drink was certainly a subject on about which he knew a lot - ultim...more
Sep 05, 2009
Manny
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
blame-jordan-if-you-like
A very nice birthday present from Jordan! The first half of the book is a hilarious manual on how to spend your life drunk. I couldn't wait to get started. Amis's technical knowledge, especially when it comes to spirits and mixed drinks, is impressive. Also his ability to avoid bullshit.
____________________________________________
We got our courage together and tried making Ernest Hemingway's signature cocktail, the fabulous Death in the Afternoon. It's very simple: put one measure of absinthe i...more
____________________________________________
We got our courage together and tried making Ernest Hemingway's signature cocktail, the fabulous Death in the Afternoon. It's very simple: put one measure of absinthe i...more
6 likes · like · see review
No doubt due to the vaguely illicit nature, there are far more good books about eating than there are about drinking. So I was quite happy to stumble upon Kingsley Amis's Everyday Drinking at the library. It's not everyday that we get musings on drinking by major literary figures. It reads like a serious, if still funny, version of Modern Drunkard. This is the sort of book you flip through and immediately fall upon a gem, like his description of the metaphysical hangover, which I quote below:
Whe...more
Whe...more
It is probably my tee-totalling upbringing that makes Kingsley Amis' drinking book so appealing to me, because it is an adventure in another world. Amis wrote about drinking in the 70s and in England, so it really is another world. Good wine largely came from France and the drinking lunch was common, not the sign of a problem. But some things do remain the same and as Amis admits he is much more of a beer and especially a spirits man, his advice there (and drink recipes) are less constrained by...more
I saw a review of this and thought I'd give it a shot. I'd heard of Amis, but had never ready anything he'd written.
This book is really three books in one, being made up of books and essays he wrote between 1971 and 1984. The NYT review I read strongly suggested reading this in bits and pieces, and I can see how a book like this should be sipped and savored. But I don't read that way (and God help me if stop drinking that way), so I consumed this rather more quickly than I should have.
That's not...more
This book is really three books in one, being made up of books and essays he wrote between 1971 and 1984. The NYT review I read strongly suggested reading this in bits and pieces, and I can see how a book like this should be sipped and savored. But I don't read that way (and God help me if stop drinking that way), so I consumed this rather more quickly than I should have.
That's not...more
I loved the first half of this book. The recipes are interesting, the opinions quite firm, and the tone decidedly British. I share Amis' bias regarding single malt scotch but we disagree wildly on gin. The book IS repetitive (it's a collection of newspaper columns, for the most part, and a certain amount of repetition is forgivable in that context) and could have been edited to remove some of that. Worth a look, especially for the Anglophilic bibber.
This book is a riot. A little old-fashioned (re: Amis thinks pubs are get-a-ways for men, not a place for women), which can taint the name of Amis, but the book is still damn funny. It's damn funny because of how opinionated and snarky it is. It's about drinking, and would be more useful to someone who actually drinks (I don't), but it still is a great read for anyone who has drank, has talked about drink, has had opinions about drink before as a novice or an amateur. It's all around a laugh-and...more
I enjoyed this book b/c I enjoy his writing style, though he does repeat himself as regards recipes, facts, and opinions. The reason I didn't give it 4 stars is b/c the last section of the book is quiz questions and answers, but it's not set up like: quiz then answer. It's about 50 pages of quiz and then the same of answers. It was a pain to have to flip back and forth. All of this makes it seem like a big book when it's really not got that much in it.
In addition to his mastery of language, Kingsley Amis was apparently a master of spirits. I enjoyed this book not so much for that topic itself as his commentary about how we interact with it. This books includes a collection of a series of columns he wrote, plus several essay on such things as wine, beer, whisky, and pubs. He had the historical and cultural depth to provide a deeper assessment than most people could.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Hangovers | 1 | 17 | May 22, 2008 09:04am |
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered the English novelist Martin Amis.
Kingsley Amis was born in Clapham, Wandsworth, Couty of London (now South London), England, the son of William Robert Am...more
More about Kingsley Amis...
Kingsley Amis was born in Clapham, Wandsworth, Couty of London (now South London), England, the son of William Robert Am...more
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“I'll pour you the first one and after that, if you don't have one, it's your own f****** fault. You know where it is.”
—
15 people liked it
“Never despise a drink because it is easy to make and/or uses commercial mixes. Unquestioning devotion to authenticity is, in any department of life, a mark of the naive - or worse.”
—
4 people liked it
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