Martin certainly knows a niche when he sees one, having previously cranked out manly guides on How to Mow the Lawn
, How to Keep House
and Bringing Up Baby
. Here he gets to leave his family behind, traveling the country to explore 50 different dwellings. With its title and the unfortunate subtitle, it seems as if the book is being marketed to men who cannot commit and/or beer-guzzlers. In fact, it's a rather charming and generally un-brutish travelogue of dens that guys love, which fights hard to overcome Martin's occasional indulgence in puns and clichés. Each room of one's own is slotted into one of five categorical chapters. In the Collecting category there are gents who gather objects, large and small, into private sanctuaries—Larry Moellman in Camp Cole, Miss., for example, turned a bedroom in his 1880 farmhouse into a showcase for ornate fishing tackle. The chapter on Entertaining features an East Hampton, N.Y., man who converted his garage into a Japanese tearoom. "Real men really do drink tea," clunks the author. Martin also throws in various manspaces of cultural or historical importance. Harry Truman's presidential yacht gets a nod as, of course, does the Playboy Mansion. 300 color photos
. (Oct.)
