In this article, the author shares his reflections on rereading Erving Goffman's book titled "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life." "The Presentation of Self," first published in 1959, was Goffman's first book. Goffman describes the work as "a sort of handbook" and, alternatively, as a "report." His own PhD on the Shetland Islands is quite frequently referred to--a study that falls into the category of what he calls "respectable researches," where regularities of behavior are "reliably recorded." In the text, these examples taken from empirical field work famously jostle with quotations and observations from literary texts. Goffman uses anthropological method, but he is not acting as an anthropologist--the book presumes and draws upon tacit knowledge in which the author and reader have to collaborate. "Presentation of Self" has been influential in almost every social science discipline, especially sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and linguistics. Its impact has extended through to theatre studies (naturally), media and cultural studies--and to the theatre itself. (Contains 2 footnotes.)