The Geek's Guide to Dating

by Eric Smith

[Angie]

The Geek's Guide to Dating is a quick, funny, and educational journey through the world of relationships, but geek style! It uses lots of references to various aspects of pop culture, and draws parallels between them and dating, which surprisingly made a lot of sense. Thinking about finding your own Player Two as a videogame quest was actually quite helpful and put things into an easy to understand perspective. I'm a single geek and the idea of getting out there and dating is quite cumbersome, but after finishing this little guide, it seems more fun and doable.

The target audience of The Geek's Guide to Dating is straight male geeks, but I do think many of tips are applicable to women and even gay geeks (although non-geeks may be out of luck). There is a blurb within the first chapter to address "gal geeks," so that was nice, and it's true that you only need to switch around a few pronouns to make it relevant to you if you are not in fact a straight male. Although I do think this could have been better and even more helpful if the advice had been gender and sexuality neutral, with a few specific sections for women or non-straight people. Geeks come in all types!

In general, I found the advice given in The Geek's Guide to Dating to be good and organized in a logical manner (geeks love logic!). It starts with addressing yourself first, which is great, since of course, you need to know exactly what you want and have to offer in a relationship. Then it goes through how to meet a potential partner, asking them out, first date ideas, and taking it to the next level. There's also a chapter on dumping and being dumped, and how to get back out there after a failed relationship! The one section I had a problem with was on what to wear on the first date. I do agree that you should you look your best, but there were too many clothing don'ts. I think you should look presentable and wear something appropriate for the date activity, but you also need to be yourself! I was kind of annoyed that hoodies were on the do not wear list, since I literally have a closet with just hoodies in it. I'm a geek gal who loves her hoodies (zip-ups not pullovers).

The Geek's Guide to Dating was pretty great. It's packed full of a lot of straightforward advice, and I loved the use of videogame lingo to explain the different aspects of relationships. I didn't get all of the references, but I doubt many geeks will be well versed in every single game, comic, movie, and TV show out there. A lot of the tips are common sense, but I do think the way it's presented makes it feel fresh and more usable in real life.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.