Book Review: How to be Cool

A few things to note here.

Let me start by saying that while this is a great book, please don’t ever read it in public. You don’t want that on your rep. Next, let’s just consider what level of self-assurance it takes to author something like this (a lot).

Accordingly, How to be Cool is a witty, biting and boldly authoritative guide to cool. It identifies ‘Nine Defining Qualities of Cool’ and educates on a cumulative 150 idols, ideals and concepts to improve your coolness.

Hodgkinson has literally covered the field of cool, touching on everything from ‘jazz cool’ (Miles Davis) to ‘geek cool’ (Steve Jobs). He also gets pretty meta at a point, asking ‘is cool cool?’

Fortunately, he seems sufficiently self-aware of how non-cool it is to study to be cool. But he doesn’t care, which is cool in itself, no?

This review was originally published in Fashion Journal 165. You can read it here.