Announcing the Winner of the Cigar/Beer of the Month Club Giveaway

Congratulations to Jim Rainwater for winning the Cigar/Beer of the Month Club Giveaway. For the next 3 months, Jim will be getting a monthly shipment of 12, 12-ounce microbrews from two lightly distributed domestic microbreweries with a total of 4 different varieties to try. He’ll also get five professionally chosen, hand-rolled cigars from around the world. If you need an easy holiday gift idea for a man in your life, check out the gift subscriptions available at club-offers.com. He’ll think of you fondly each month when new goodies arrive in the mail.

If you didn’t win, don’t despair. We’ve packed this holiday season with a giveaway almost every week until Christmas. So stay tuned for many more chances to win awesomely manly booty.

The Art of Manliness Movember Team

The second week of Movember is coming to an end. The AoM Movember Team has raised $3,696 so far. Our goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of the month. If you haven’t donated (or even if you have) click on this link to make a donation on Movember’s secure server.

Here are the top 5 fundraisers from our Movember Team

Michael Miller    $ 595.00
Paul Fournier    $ 480.00
Chuck Balog    $ 340.00
Greg Park    $ 323.00
Ryan Gorman    $ 220.00

Don’t forget that half of every purchase of a Man’s Guide to the Holidays eBook goes to the AoM Movember team. So even if you’re not growing a stache, you can still contribute to a great cause (and get lots of great holidays tips!)

Around the Community This Week

Michael is buying a new computer and needs some advice on what to get. Weigh in.

Jack wants to hear about the benefits of getting older. Besides being eligible for the senior citizen discount at Denny’s.

Bad boys seems to get all the girls. But it’s not so much their badness that attracts the ladies as it is their confidence and spontaneity. Jamie started a discussion on how nice guys can incorporate the good aspects of the “bad boy.”

Captain G asks, “Is it ever too late to start over professionally?”

Mark wants to know what lessons you’ve learned from raising a son.

Herb started a thread where you can share stories of your family and friends, both living and dead, who served in our armed services and deserve to be honored.

Dagwood was right. The sandwich is essential man food. Don wants to know what you like to put between two slices of bread.

James! wrote a blog post about that singular moment in every parent’s life-when they tell their kid that Santa Claus isn’t real.

Carlos wrote a great blog post about his grandpa, who is truly an extraordinary man.

Lee wrote a blog post about his first deer hunting outing. He bagged a buck! Guy’s got quite a hunting future ahead of him.

Links From Around the Web

Hierarchy of Beards An amazing pictorial representation of the hierarchy of beards. Where does your beard rank? (Hat Tip to Chris)

Moustache Care (via GQ) For those of you growing a mustache for Movember, take a look at this short guide from GQ on how to get that uber-cool curl on your mustache a la Rollie Fingers.

Philly Tweed Ride Tweed Rides are popping up all around the U.S. People get together dressed to the nines in tweed knickers, ride bikes, and play old timey games. It’s like a critical mass ride, except instead of protesting big oil, you’re out supporting the return of tweed. The Philly Tweed ride was held last week. Check out the photos from the event. It might inspire you to start a Tweed Ride in your town.

10 Steps to Increasing Your Financial Resilience (@ Schaefer’s Blog) AoM contributing writer, Cameron Schaefer wrote a post on his blog on 10 things you can do today to increase your financial resilience. It’s a nice reminder of the basics we all should be doing to maximize our financial life.

Letters of Note Letters of Note scans old letters, postcards, telegrams, and memos and posts them up on the site daily. Lots of interesting stuff there. I always have enjoyed reading old letters. It’s a great way to learn history from the people who actually lived it. 

• The Art of Manliness Weekly Round-up: November 7, 2009
• The Art of Manliness Movember Contest 2009
• Weekly Link Round-Up: October 31, 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup: Man Store Edition

While many of you have been following The Art of Manliness since we started back in 2008, some of you are fairly new readers. To help you new arrivals get the most out of AoM and navigate around our extensive archives and community section, we’ve compiled this beginner’s guide.

First a note: There’s a TON of stuff here. We don’t recommend that you go through it all in one sitting. It will probably take you days to go through everything on AoM. Bookmark this page and come back to it from time to time to do some more exploring.

Why The Art of Manliness?

We’re often asked why we started a site called The Art of Manliness. We explain that on our About page and also go into a little bit about the philosophy of the site. Check it out.

Also, make sure to check out our FAQ. It might answer some of the questions you may have about the site.

The Archives

We’ve written over 500 articles here at AoM about a variety of topics. I highly recommend surfing through our archives to see what we have to offer. There are lots of gems.

If you don’t want to waste your time going through every single post in our archives, each month we compile a list of the most popular posts of the month. Here are all the lists since Jan. 2008:

• Best of Art of Manliness: March 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: April 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: May 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: June 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: July 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: August 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: September 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: November 2008
• Best of Art of Manliness: February 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: March 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: June 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: July 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: August 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: September 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009

Movie and Books Lists

Over the past two years we’ve compiled lists of books and movies that we think men would enjoy. Check them out!

• Movies for Men
• Books for Men

Popular Series on AoM

Every now and then we’ll have a series of articles that focus on a particular theme. Here are our three most popular series.

• Benjamin Franklin Virtue Series- In this series we analyzed one of Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues each week and offered suggestions on how men can live those virtues on a daily basis.
• 30 Days to a Better Man- In June 2009, we ran a series called “30 Days to a Better Man.” Each day we created a task for Art of Manliness readers to complete that would help them improve in different facets of their lives such as relationships, fitness and health, career, and personal finances. Check out the series online or download our popular 30 Days to a Better Man eBook.
• So You Want My Job- Ever wanted to know what’s it’s like to be a movie director? How about a farmer? In the So You Want My Job series we interview a different man each week who has the sort of job that lots of men covet. If you’re trying to figure out what you want to be when you “grow up,” check out this series. You might just get inspired.

Comment Policy

One of the great things about blogs is that it allows readers to comment on articles. It’s our goal to create a community of readers who are actively engaged with the site. We pride ourselves on the level of maturity and civility that the comments on AoM have. To ensure that the discussion stays civil and on point, we have established a comment policy. Please read it.

The Community

The blog isn’t the only part of the Art of Manliness site. If you’d like to connect with other men who are interested in rediscovering the lost art of manliness, make sure to join the Community. We have over 5,000 registered members from all over the world. In the Community, you can

• Take part in one of the hundreds of discussions going on
• Share manly pics
• Write a blog post about a manly skill
• Join groups with like minded men

The Book

In October 2009, we published a book based on The Art of Manliness website. It includes some of our most popular posts, which have been edited and improved, along with brand new material that has never appeared on the website (about 30% of the book is brand new). It also includes lots of great illustrations.

If you enjoy the Art of Manliness website, you can now have some of our best advice all in one place, in one comprehensive, nicely formatted, handsomely illustrated whole. The Art of Manliness book is also fantastic for the husband, brother, boyfriend, or son that you’ve been trying to turn on to the website. The book is perfect for both boys and men who want to better themselves.

Pick up a copy at your local bookstore, Amazon.com, or buy a signed copy directly from us.

eBooks

We’ve written a few eBooks that are available for download. Some are free and some cost money. Give them a look through.

• Guide to Being a Gentleman
• The Art of Manliness Man Cookbook
• 30 Days to a Better Man
• Man’s Guide to the Holidays

The Podcast

In September 2009, we started a weekly podcast at the Art of Manliness. In just two months, the podcast has attracted over 40,000 iTunes subscribers. In the AoM podcast, Brett interviews authors and experts about topics of interest to men. Every other week the podcast dedicates itself to the series called “Man Stories” in which Brett asks a different AoM reader what it means to be a man.

Check out the episodes from the beginning here.

Also, make sure to subscribe to the Art of Manliness Podcast via iTunes

Or through the subscription service of your choice.

YouTube Videos

We’ve also created a few how-to videos on manly skills. Give them a watch. They’re short, but you’ll definitely walk away learning something new.

• How to Fold a Pocket Square
• How to Carve a Turkey
• How to Sharpen a Pocket Knife
• How to Tie a Tie
• How to Tie Seven Basic Knots

Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss out on our video updates. We plan on doing more videos in the future.

T-shirts

Show off your manly pride with one of our 6 Art of Manliness t-shirts designed by the gents at TankFarm Clothing.

Never Miss an Art of Manliness Post by Subscribing

Did you know that you can get The Art of Manliness articles delivered directly to your email inbox? Make the AoM experience easier for you by signing up for our email updates. Over 26,000 people get AoM articles emailed to them. Simply sign-up here. And just to let you know, we hate spam just as much as you do. We’ll never give out your email address to third-parties. You can also easily unsubscribe yourself any time you’d like.

If email updates aren’t your thing, we also provide RSS subscription. Click here to add Art of Manliness to your feed reader.

As a bonus to our subscribers, they get a FREE ebook called “The Guide to Being a Gentleman.” It’s crammed with useful tips that will turn any man into a smooth and debonair gentleman.

Connect with Art of Manliness on Facebook and Twiter

If you use Facebook, join the Art of Manliness Page. Every day we post links to interesting stuff from around the web that would be of interest to AoM readers. We also occasionally have special contests for Facebook Fans.

The same goes with Twitter. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest AoM updates and links to interesting stuff around the web. We’ve also included a twitter list of people and sites that we recommend you follow. Follow the AoM Recommends list to get the best in men’s interest material.

• Best of Art of Manliness, March 2008
• The Art of Manliness Podcast Episode #9: An Interview with Wayne Levine from BetterMen.org
• The Best of Art of Manliness: August 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: March 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2008

We had a lot of cool stuff happen in October. The biggest news was the launch of our new book, The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man. A big thanks to everyone who has gone out and bought a copy (or 2 or 3…. or even 7! Thanks John T.). We really appreciate it. With the holidays coming up, consider picking up a few copies of our book for the men in your life. It would make a great stocking stuffer.

Speaking of holidays, we also released A Man’s Guide to the Holidays eBook. It’s crammed with tips guaranteed to give you the manliest holiday season ever. Learn how to tip like a gentleman around the holidays, hang Christmas lights efficiently, and cut down a Christmas tree.

October’s Most Popular Posts

How to Exit a Room Like a Man

How to Shave Like Your Great Grandpa: The Ultimate Straight Razor Shaving Guide

How to Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt

The Mad Men Guide to a Manly Haircut

On Manly Loyalty

The Community

The blog isn’t the only part of the Art of Manliness site. If you’d like to connect with other men who are interested in rediscovering the lost art of manliness, make sure to join the Community. We have over 5,000 registered members from all over the world. In the Community, you can share manly pics, write a blog post about a manly skill, or take part in one of the hundreds of discussions going on.

Movember

The Art of Manliness formed a team to participate in Movember. Movember is a month long campaign where men grow mustaches and raise money to help battle prostate cancer and depression. The AoM team has 82 member from all over the world. If you’re not a member of the AoM Movember posse, please consider donating a few dollars to the AoM team. Your money will be going to an important cause for men.

Art of Manliness T-shirts

Show off your Art of Manliness pride with one of our 6 manly t-shirts from TankFarm Clothing. Also, makes a great Christmas present!

Subscribe

You can subscribe to The Art of Manliness by the following methods:

Join over 24,000 people who receive The Art of Manliness via email by supplying your address.

Enter your email address:

Make sure you confirm your email subscription by answering the confirmation email you get after signing up.

You can also subscribe through RSS.

Every subscriber gets access to our popular Guide to Being a Gentleman eBook.

Be sure to follow Art of Manliness on Twitter. Each day we provide inspiring manly quotes and cool man trivia.

• The Best of Art of Manliness: August 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• The Art of Manliness: Best of July 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: June 2009
• Weekly Link Round-Up: October 31, 2009

Every time I turn on a football game, I see players with pink shoelaces and pink gloves and pink towels, all promoting breast cancer awareness. I’m all for saving the world’s wonderful tata’s, but men have a cancer all of their own, and it unfortunately doesn’t get quite as much attention (I guess nobody wants to think about a guy’s junk when they’re peeling off the top of their yogurt.)

But Movember is an effort to change that. Started in 2003, Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the mustache, highlighting men’s health issues – specifically prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and male depression. During the month of November, men grow a mustache and raise funds for charities like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG).

We’re going to be celebrating Movember here on the Art of Manliness website by inviting readers to grow a mo during the month of November. The man who raises the most money for charity will be rewarded with a handsome prize.

Here’s how the contest works:

1. Awesomely manly Aussie and Movember veteran Shaun Daws has started an Art of Manliness team on the Movember site. As team captain, he’ll be keeping an eye on the leader board and encouraging you along. To join the Art of Manliness team, you must register on the Movember site. You must register as a “team member” so we can keep track of your progress.

2. On November 1, you must start out clean shaven. You will then commence the growing of your beautiful, hairy mustache masterpiece. You cannot shave your mo until Nov. 30, and you must adhere to the following grooming rules:

• There is to be no joining of the Mo at the sideburns – that’s a beard

• There is to be no joining of the handlebars at the chin – that’s a goatee

• A small complimentary growth under the chin is allowed (aka the Tickler)

3. During the month, hit up friends and family to donate to the cause.

4. Shaun has created a Movember Group in the Art of Manliness Community. Join the group and encourage your brothers! Shaun will be posting news, pictures, and updates, and you should do likewise. Let everyone see how your stache is progressing!

5. If you don’t have the cajones to grow a mustache (or if you don’t have cajones, period) you can still donate to the cause.

Men, this is your big chance to grow the mustache you’ve always dreamed of having but been too scared to attempt. The beauty of Movember is that during the early growing stage, the stage where the newly formed mustache’s appearance is so unsightly that men give up and shave, you have a ready and worthy excuse for why you look like a child molester. People will not only abstain from laughing at you, men will pat you on the back and women will french kiss you with joy. Then, at the end of the month, when the awesomeness of your stache is in full bloom, people will be in such awe of it that they will beg you not to shave it off. It’s win-win here folks.

Speaking of winning, finally having the manly mustache of your dreams is not the only prize. The Art of Manliness team members who raise the most money will be richly rewarded for the effort with these super duper prizes:

3rd Place: A sweet Movember t-shirt.

2nd Place: A sweet Movember t-shirt PLUS mustache cuff links.

1st Place: A Box of Manliness….A what? Behold!

This box was designed and created by AoM read Danielle Gidley for her boyfriend’s 30th birthday. We thought it was so cool that we’re going to make one for the winner of the Movember contest. The box will contain:

• Safety Razor
• Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream
• Badger Hair Shaving Brush
• Manly Mustache Handkerchief
• Case Pocket Knife
• A signed copy of the Art of Manliness book

This box will not only put hair on your chest, it will add serious fur to your now trembling upper lip. Happy growing fellas!

• The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup: Man Store Edition
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• 20 Manliest Mustaches and Beards From Facial Hair History
• Weekly Link Round-Up: October 31, 2009
• The Art of Manliness Weekly Round-up: November 7, 2009

First off, a big thanks to everyone who has already bought a copy of the new Art of Manliness book. Thanks to you all, last Monday we made it up to #33 on Amazon.com’s Bestseller list. We really and truly appreciate the support. We’ve gotten a lot of very positive feedback about the book, and we’re happy that you’re enjoying it and have found it to be a good read.

Here are some updates about the book we wanted to let you know about:

Free Man’s Guide to the Holidays Ebook Offer Ends Soon!

If you haven’t bought a book yet, remember that you only have about 24 hours left to get the our new ebook, Man’s Guide to the Holidays, FREE with the purchase of the Art of Manliness book. The Man’s Guide to the Holidays ebook will sell for $9.95, so this is your chance to get two books for the price of one! The offer ends on Monday, October 12 at 11:59. So make sure to buy your book before the witching hour. If you’re planning on buying Art of Manliness books as gifts for the holidays, go ahead and buy them now and get the free ebook. You can stash the books in the attic.

Amazon Reviews

If you’ve already received the book and you’re grateful for the amount of hair it’s put on your chest, please consider posting a review of the book on Amazon.

• Announcing the Launch of the Art of Manliness Book!
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• The Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook
• Get the 30 Days to a Better Man eBook!
• Ebook Link Fixed

Well it’s been over a year in the making and Kate and I are proud to announce to launch of the Art of Manliness book!

Why an Art of Manliness Book?

I’ll level with you, there are a ton of “man skill” books out there. But while they offer advice on how to make  a potato gun and get a stripper’s phone number, they don’t point the way towards becoming a better man. And there are also books out there about the philosophy of manliness. But they don’t offer any practical advice for putting those theories into practice. What hasn’t been available is a book that combines both fun and substance. A book that provides plenty of “how-to” tips, while situated in the context of becoming the best man you can be. Until now.

If you enjoy the Art of Manliness website, you can now have some of our best advice all in one place, in one comprehensive, nicely formatted, handsomely illustrated whole. The Art of Manliness book is also fantastic for the husband, brother, boyfriend, or son that you’ve been trying to turn on to the website. The book is perfect for both boys and men who want to better themselves.

About the Art of Manliness Book

We’ve made an About page just for the book where you can  look around, learn more about the book, and even read a whole chapter from the book. Check it out.

Buy the Art of Manliness Book-Get Our New Ebook, the “Man’s Guide to the Holidays,” for FREE

In honor of this first week of the book launch, we are offering an awesome, unbeatable deal. We’ve just completed a new ebook: Man’s Guide to the Holidays. There are plenty of holiday guides out there for women, but until now there’s never been anything specifically written for men. The ebook will teach you all the skills a man needs to know to make the holidays a magical and festive time. The book is priced at $9.95, but until Monday, October 12th, if you buy a copy of the Art of Manliness book, you can get the Man’s Guide to the Holidays absolutely free. Two books for the price of one! See this page for details.

Support the Art of Manliness Book Launch

We can’t afford a fancy publicist to get the word out about the book, so we’re relying on the Art of Manliness army to trumpet the book far and wide. We’d love to really put manliness on the map! Right now the media seems to ignore the fact that there are men and women out there who are tired of men simply being presented and marketed to as dumb brutes. Let’s get people talking about this emerging movement towards honorable manliness!

Here are some ways you can help us get the word out about the book:

• Buy the book on Amazon on Monday, October 5. If you’re planning on buying the book, buy it on Monday. We’d like to get as high on Amazon’s bestseller list on Monday as humanely possible, which can generate some additional exposure for the book.
• If you liked the book, please post a review on Amazon and let other people know.
• Tweet the Art of Manliness book page to your friends.
• Put an overlay of the book in your Twitter avatar.
• Share a link to the Art of Manliness book page on Facebook.
• Ask your local bookstores if they are carrying the book.
• If you have a blog, blog about the book.

• Important Updates About the Art of Manliness Book
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• A Beginner’s Guide to The Art of Manliness: A Guided Tour
• The Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook
• Get the 30 Days to a Better Man eBook!

I can’t believe summer is almost over. It went by fast. Thankfully, for the first time in 21 years I won’t be going back to school this fall. It feels sort of weird. Anyway, August was a great month at the Art of Manliness. Lots of great comments in the posts and lots of manly activity in the Community. Thanks again for all your help in making the Art of Manliness a success.

Here are the top 5 most popular posts in August:

13 (More) of the Worst Products For Men

Brewing the Perfect Cup of Coffee

Being Decisive

How to Apologize Like a Man

Old School Workout: Daily Exercises for Young Men from 1883

The Community

The blog isn’t the only part of the Art of Manliness site. If you’d like to connect with other men who are interested in rediscovering the lost art of manliness, make sure to join the Community. We have over 4,200 registered members from all over the world. In the Community, you can share manly pics, write a blog post about a manly skill, or take part in one of the hundreds of discussions going on.

Art of Manliness T-shirts

Show off your Art of Manliness pride with one of our 6 manly t-shirts from TankFarm Clothing.

The 30 Days E-book

If you missed our 30 Days to a Better Man program back in June, you can download it in a nicely formatted PDF eBook for only $2.50. The book is over 90 pages long and crammed with tips and motivation to help you become a better man in just a month. Click here to download it.

Subscribe

You can subscribe to The Art of Manliness by the following methods:

Join over 20,000 people who receive The Art of Manliness via email by supplying your address.

Enter your email address:

Make sure you confirm your email subscription by answering the confirmation email you get after signing up.

You can also subscribe through RSS.

Every subscriber gets access to our popular Guide to Being a Gentleman eBook.

Be sure to follow Art of Manliness on Twitter. Each day we provide inspiring manly quotes and cool man trivia.

Share

Art of Manliness is a completely bootstrapped operation. If you appreciate the quality, free content we put out, please share AoM with other people. Use the share button at the bottom of every post to share AoM articles on popular social media sites, email stories you like to your friends, or just bring us up in your daily conversations. And join the new Evangelists of Manliness group in the Community to learn about more ways to help. We appreciate the love.

• The Art of Manliness: Best of July 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: June 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: September 2009

This past June, The Art of Manliness ran a month long series called 30 Days to a Better Man. We got a very positive response from it and many of you told us that you found it very helpful. After the series was over, we received many requests from readers to put the series together in an a easy to read and formatted PDF eBook that they could print off and go through at their own speed.

Well, I finally it got it done. I spent a lot of time working on this bad boy, but I think the effort was well worth it. It looks nice and I’ve added some spiffy worksheets at the end of each task that you can use to help you make your progress on becoming a better man. This turned out to be the size of a regular book. It’s a little over 90 pages long. Because it’s PDF, you can print more than one book page on a printer page. You can put two to a page and create a small book. If you really want to save paper, put three to a page.

Here’s a preview of what it looks like:

Mantastic! How can I get it? If you’d like to download the book, click on this link. You’ll be taken to a PayPal page, where you can securely pay a nominal cost of $2.50 and download the file.

Why are you charging for the eBook? The cost is to cover the time I spent putting this bad boy together. I kept the price nominal because 1) I wanted everybody to afford it if they wanted it and 2) the content is already available online.

Can you still access the posts online for free? You betcha. You can still go through all the Better Men posts online for absolutely free. They’re not going anywhere. The draw of the eBook is the convenience of being able to print it off and take it with you and the worksheets I added.

Again, if you’d like download the eBook, click here and pay $2.50 via Paypal. Paypal accepts credit cards.

• The Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook
• Important Updates About the Art of Manliness Book
• Art of Manliness Weekly Round-Up: 30 Days to a Better Man Ebook Edition
• The Best of Art of Manliness: August 2009
• A Beginner’s Guide to The Art of Manliness: A Guided Tour

Last month was a big one for Art of Manliness. We started off the month with the redesign of the site. Thanks for all of your fantastic feedback on it. We also launched our new line of t-shirts and hosted another epic Saddleback Leather Company giveaway. Once again, the contest really drew a crowd. Thanks for your participation!

We ended the month with over 700,000 visits and the subscriber count reached 44,000. Thank you for continuing to spread the word about AoM. We couldn’t be successful without your help.

Let’s take a look at July’s most popular posts:

100 Must See Movies: The Men’s Essential Movie Library

The Best Guns For Home Defense

Command a Room Like a Man

Motivational Posters: George S. Patton Edition

A Man’s Guide to Summer Dress

The Community

The blog isn’t the only part of the Art of Manliness site. If you’d like to connect with other men who are interested in rediscovering the lost art of manliness, make sure to join the Community. We have over 3,700 registered members from all over the world. In the Community, you can share manly pics, write a blog post about a manly skill, or take part in one of the hundreds of discussions going on.

Subscribe

You can subscribe to The Art of Manliness by the following methods:

Join over 19,000 people who receive The Art of Manliness via email by supplying your address.

Enter your email address:

Make sure you confirm your email subscription by answering the confirmation email you get after signing up.

You can also subscribe through RSS.

Every subscriber gets access to our popular Guide to Being a Gentleman eBook.

Be sure to follow Art of Manliness on Twitter. Each day we provide inspiring manly quotes and cool man trivia.

Share

Art of Manliness is a completely bootstrapped operation. If you appreciate the quality, free content we put out, please share AoM with other people. Use the share button at the bottom of every post to share AoM articles on popular social media sites, email stories you like to your friends, or just bring us up in your daily conversations. We appreciate any help you can provide.

• The Best of Art of Manliness: June 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: August 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• Best of Art of Manliness: September 2009

We were blown away by the response to the Saddleback Leather Company Briefcase Giveaway. 1,218 of you left comments sharing your briefcase essentials, over 900 joined the Man Bag Group in the Community, and thousands of you sent emails to your friends. Thanks for your impassioned response. If we could give a Saddleback briefcase to all of you (and myself!), we would.

But of course, there can only be one winner. And the lucky man who was randomly selected from the entries was Seth Putnam of Carthage, Missouri. Seth is a journalist who spends a lot of time in South America. His new Saddleback Leather briefcase is the perfect accessory to carry his notebooks and camera into the field. Congratulations Seth!

If you didn’t win the contest, you’re still not walking away empty handed. The folks at Saddleback Leather Company are offering Art of Manliness readers an exclusive offer.  Any reader who makes a Saddleback purchase of $245 or more will receive a FREE small Saddleback Leather wallet. These wallets are made with the same quality materials and craftsmanship as the bags and will last a lifetime. To get your free wallet, add the wallet to your shopping cart along with your other purchases and enter in the code “aom” when you check out. The cost of the wallet will be taken off your total price. The code is good until August 9, so make sure you snap up a bag today!

• Congratulations to Saddleback Leather Company Man Bag Giveaway Winner
• Saddleback Leather Company Man Bag Giveaway
• Briefcase Essentials: The Saddleback Leather Company Giveaway
• Art of Manliness Weekly Link Roundup: Cake and Mates of State Edition
• The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup

Well we’ve upped the design on the Art of Manliness website and we thought it was time to up the coolness of our t-shirts as well. We’ve teamed up with the awesome men at Tankfarm Clothing to create a new line of AoM shirts. Not only are the designs uber manly, the t-shirts themselves are of the highest quality, baby soft, and fit nicely to your manly physique.

There are 5 new designs to choose from. The first 3 are odes to the greatest and manliest man of all time, Theodore Roosevelt:

The Bull Moose Party

Concerned about the direction the country was going in, in 1912 TR ran for an unprecedented third term as President. When it became clear that the Republican party bosses were not going to nominate him, he bolted the convention and formed the Progressive Party, otherwise known as the Bull Moose Party. Show your support for the greatest third party in American history with this awesome tee.

Rough Rider

Before TR was prez, he led a special regiment of the country’s best frontiersmen, cowboys, marksmen and all-around bad asses to glory in the Spanish-American War. The manliest military force in history, they were known as the Rough Riders.

Strong as a Bull Moose

The Progressive Party got its nickname when reporters questioned whether TR was fit for office and he retorted, “I’m as fit as a bull moose!” Later during the campaign, Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin. The bullet lodged in his ribs, but instead of seeking immediate medical attention he proceeded to an auditorium where thousands were waiting to hear him speak. He showed them his bloody shirt and declared: “I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to stop a Bull Moose!” He then proceeded to speak for 90 minutes before finally consenting to be taken to the hospital.

For those less, well, obsessed with Theodore Roosevelt, we offer two just generally awesome and manly designs:

Gentlemen’s Boxing Club

Okay, so we still found a way to sneak a little TR into this one. What can I say; we can’t help ourselves.

Razor Sharp

Barbershops are some of the very last bastions of manliness. Convince your friends to forever forsake Supercuts by wearing this shirt.

All the tees are $16.50 and can be ordered from the Tankfarm/Art of Manliness store. If you don’t have the scratch to buy one, don’t forget that you can obtain a shirt the good old fashioned way: by earning one. Participte in the Art of Manliness Community, accumulate manliness 1,000 points, and you’ve got yourself a shirt. Of course if you can wait more than a day to get one of these babies, then brother, you’re a better man than me.

Many, many thanks to the manly men of Tankfarm tees for putting these shirts and the AoM store together for us. You are outstanding men and we are proud to be associated with you.

DownloadThe Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook
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Check Out These Related Posts:

• Preorder a New Art of Manliness T-Shirt
• Best of Art of Manliness: October 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• Lessons in Manliness: Theodore Roosevelt and the Spanish-American War
• Preorder an Art of Manliness T-Shirt

So this week was AoM’s very first with our new facelift. I think the Art of Manliness is looking pretty dang sharp. We’ve been tweaking little issues this week. If you encounter any problems, please let us know. Some of you have mentioned that you have to complete a “captcha” to leave a comment. This shouldn’t be happening, so if it is, again, let us know. Otherwise, just bask in the newly upped manliness of the design.

Now let’s take a look at other things that have been happening around the blog this week:

Art of Manliness Contests

The Toilet Paper Contest

The Toilet Paper randomly drew an email from those who signed up for their updates, and the winner of a new Amazon Kindle is……

Marshall McClure from North Carolina

Hope you enjoy that Kindle, Marshall!

AoM Community PhotoGroup Photo Contest

The PhotoGroup hosted a father-themed photo contest last month and the excellent entries have been narrowed down to 4 superb finalists. The winner is selected by popular vote, and voting ends today, so stop by and pick your favorite. And take a minute to watch this great video of all the entries that was put together by the huhman:

Around the Community This Week

Within the Book Group, the Book Club has decided to read The Count of Monte Cristo. You have two weeks to read it and then they’ll discuss it. Join in!

Will started a discussion about books about manliness and lists some of his recommendations.

Todd started a discussion about manly names. You can’t go wrong with Optimus Prime.

If you want kids and you spouse decides that they don’t, is that a deal breaker? Weigh in on this weighty topic.

Craig posted a heartwarming story about his Fourth of July with his family.

Tyler posed the question, “What man most personifies the Art of Manliness? A great question in itself, but it also spawned another question: Is it ever manly to kill yourself?

Todd started a discussion about how to decorate a man’s apartment.

Liam started a discussion about having a positive attitude about aging.

James wrote an excellent blog post about the difference between passion and posturing.

In the Motorcycles Group, Claude posed the question, “If money were no object, what bike would you add to your collection and why?

In the Philosopher’s Group, Christatos Aristad grapples with the economy of life and whether it’s moral to kill some people in order to save others.

In that same group, Shaun posed his usual thought-provoking questions like:

Is it wrong to choose not to have children?

When does the Boy become the Man?

Is it right to “promote” the spread of democracy?

• Announcing the Art of Manliness Father’s Day Photo Contest
• The Weekly Round-Up
• Weekly Link Round-Up
• Weekly Link Round-up: Week 4 of the 30 Days to a Better Man Challenge
• Weekly Link Round: Week 3 of 30 Days to a Better Man

If you subscribe to the Art of Manliness through RSS feed or by email updates, you may have noticed that you haven’t seen anything new from AoM in about a week. No, we haven’t stopped blogging; perish the thought! This past weekend we’ve been doing some updates on the server and on the site’s design. During the update, we had a small glitch that caused our RSS feed and email newsletters not to update. We apologize for the inconvenience.Things should be back to normal again.

While you weren’t getting updates, a lot was going on at The Art of Manliness. To help catch you up, here’s what you missed:

Welcome to The Art of Manliness Redesign (Come visit the site! It has been completely redesigned.)

Motivational Posters: George S. Patton Edition

More Than Just Finding North: Understanding the Compass

• Best of Art of Manliness, March 2008
• The Art of Manliness: Best of July 2009
• The Best of Art of Manliness, April 2008
• The Best of Art of Manliness: May 2009
• Father’s Day Giveaway! $25 Gift Certificate to Outback Steakhouse

I’m sure many of you noticed that The Art of Manliness was down for maintenance this weekend. In between scarfing down burgers and watching fireworks, we were busy rolling out the redesign of the site. Welcome to AoM 2.o.

I’ve been wanting to redesign the site for awhile now. When I first started AoM back in 2008, I did the design myself. I thought it was pretty good for a law student who had a few months of HTML under his belt, but I knew it could have been better. So I decided to call in long time AoM reader and bad-a web designer, Eric Granata to help me give Art of Manliness a facelift. Eric did a fantastic job. He’s a talented and smart designer who had the ethos and feel of Art of Manliness down pat and was able to deliver us a redesign that knocked our socks off. If you’re looking for a graphic/web designer, definitely check out Eric. I wholeheartedly recommend him. Thanks, Eric!

So, what’s new?  Here’s a quick rundown:

• Simplified layout. We tried to make things simpler and cleaner looking.  We got rid of the magazine style layout and replaced it with a simple chronological layout like you see on most blogs. At the top we put a featured post rotator where we can put some of our favorite posts front and center. Underneath that you’ll find a list of posts in chronological order. Much easier on the eyes, if I do say so myself. We’ve also moved to just one sidebar column instead of two to further clean up the design.
• Better Navigation. We’ve done some things to improve navigation on the site. At the top we’ve added a nav bar with all our main categories. If you’re just interested in a particular subject, just click on a corresponding link at the top and enjoy the archives from that category. We’ve also included a tab box in the sidebar where you can easily see our most popular and most recent articles. Finally, on each individual post, we’ve included links at the bottom that  easily let you navigate to the previous or next post and also related posts.
• Vintage design. Art of Manliness is known for it’s old timey manliness vibe. We upped it a bit with some nice visual flourishes like the manly wood paneling on the sides and top and the cool vintage engravings in the sidebar.
• Barbershop Locator and Community Buttons. We wanted to make our famous Barbershop locator easier to find, so we had Eric whip up a cool looking button for the sidebar. Also, he made a nice looking button for our manly community section on the site. Just one click and you’re interacting with thousands of men who are interested in manning up.
• Featured Video. We’ve been doing more how-to videos, and we wanted a place where readers could have easy access to them, so we made a featured video square in the sidebar. Anytime we put out a new video, look for it there.
• Gravatars in the comments. These were added to give more of a community feel to the comments.  Basically, it’s just a little photo or picture next to each comment. You can go to Gravatar.com to sign up for a free account (you just give them your email, not anything personal) and add a simple photo. You don’t have to sign up for a Gravatar in order to leave a comment. If you leave a comment without a gravatar, a default John Sullivan icon will be left.

For those of you who blog, we’re now using the Thesis Wordpress Theme. Check it out. Very easy to use and customize and it’s great for SEO.

That’s pretty much it. We’ll be tweaking stuff over the next few days and adding some finishing touches. Let us know what you think!

• Check Out the Art of Manliness on ChannelFlip
• The Best of Art of Manliness: March 2009
• Art of Manliness Housekeeping: RSS Feed and Email Updates Fixed
• The Art of Manliness: Best of July 2009
• Introducing The Art of Manliness Barbershop Locator

Tomorrow is Independence Day here in the United States and we’re going to take a break so we can celebrate with friends and family. We hope you have a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend. Here are some patriotic themed posts from AoM that you can read while taking a break from chowing down on burgers and dogs.

The Ultimate Man’s Guide to Fireworks

Is Patriotism Manly?

How to Fly Old Glory With Respect

The Art of Summer Grilling

How to Grill the Perfect Steak

On Being Given Much

• Happy 4th of July 2008
• The Art of Summer Grilling
• Happy Thanksgiving!
• Grilling the Perfect Steak
• The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup: Men’s Grill Edition