I believe it was the critic Dwight Macdonald who first pointed out the prevalence of “how-to-ism” in American literature. It isn’t just that there are lots of practical manuals for cooking or gardening, succeeding in business or love, but that the instructional mindset permeates even the most celebrated novels. If you’ve read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, you’ll know enough about the sea to board a whaler yourself. And Henry James spent a good deal of his time telling young Americans how to comport themselves in European society. The instructional tendency is perhaps especially strong in Ernest Hemingway. Much of his writing consists of tips for how to booze or kill bulls or go to bed with women. All worth knowing, to a greater or lesser degree.