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On the surface, Faking It is an instruction manual on how recent college graduates should act in the post-college-party business world. However, it can also be offered up as a guide to post-college life in general since it has guidelines that everyone should follow if they want to avoid embarrassing situations after graduation.

Written by the funny chaps over at collegehumor.com, I assumed this book would not actually have much valuable information on how to act in the real world. I expected it to be full of vulgar-yet-funny jokes aimed for drunken frat boys. I was wrong; it actually gives smart advice.

Faking It has a chapter for almost every situation imaginable to a recent graduate. Topics as trivial as getting a date are discussed in depth, as are important fashion do’s and don’ts. There is even a section giving facial hair grooming tips. The book is undoubtedly targeting a male audience.

When reading the advice Faking It gives, I realized that I already follow most of these guidelines, and I’m just a junior, not even a member of the target audience comprised of college grads. Though the advice might be obvious to most, a lot of the humor in the book is found in the absurd idea that it might not be so obvious to others.

Some of this stuff was so ridiculous to have in print that I had to laugh out loud. Not growing a mustache and not wearing college baseball caps after college is just common sense. Mustaches make every man look ridiculous, unless by some odd luck the individual can pull off that 80s TV star look (think Magnum P.I. and Lt. Martin Castillo of Miami Vice). The writers were on the right track when they discussed the difficult decision to grow a beard. The two-week period it takes to grow the beard is an uncomfortable 14 days, but it often pays off in the end. I’ve never made it a whole week myself, let alone the two weeks necessary to achieve the beard look.

The authors were also on the ball concerning caps. College baseball caps don’t look good on anybody except for college kids and the occasional sports fan out at a game. In fact, avoiding caps completely is suggested by the book, trucker caps included.

Aside from information on how to dress and demonstrate proper hygiene, Faking It offers up some less-known advice that I personally was not aware of. It gives tips on how to shop economically, telling readers how to get the best deals every time, even in stores where bartering is generally not acceptable. Some of the ideas the book suggests seem a little outlandish, but there are probably a few people who would be willing to try this stuff. Spilling a small amount of liquid on a piece of clothing to get a discount in the price is clever, but just sounds like a bad idea to me.

The book is a quick read. It has a large font size similar to the Goosebumps books that most everyone read in the mid-90s. But it makes a lasting impression. More often than not, readers will come away remembering at least a few tidbits of advice. For me, I won’t forget the suggestion that it is never okay to wear black loafers with jeans. Without the book, I would have never known that was a fashion faux pas that only Italians can successfully pull off. And, for those few individuals who are constantly unsure of what colors to avoid pairing together or wondering if it is acceptable to wear that five o’clock shadow at a nine-to-fiver, it is a handy guidebook to have laying around the crummy apartment that buyers of the book will probably live in after graduation. Unless, of course, they live with their parents.