The Geek's Guide to Dating Review

Title: The Geek's Guide to Dating

Author: Eric Smith

Publisher: Quirk Productions & Random House

ISBN: 9781594746437

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I'm a girl geek.  This makes me quirky to my family, friends and co-workers.  Despite being geared towards the guys, I decided, out of curiosity, to read this book.  And I found ladies can enjoy and get something from this book as well.  As the author preface, just take out the parts about facial hair and you're golden.  It was definitely an amusing read.  What you get was not exactly a guide to just dating.  It was more of how to find, start and maintain a relationship.

The guide began by going over the different types of geeks (aka personalities).  It covered their abilities, weaknesses and strengths.  Don't be surprise if you are comprised of more than one.  And after reading the rest of the book, the first chapter felt kind of irrelevant in the scheme of things.  Then onto the dating scene - offline and online.  The advice here may be recycled information but from what I've seen, some tips need rehashing.  It went over appropriate ways to dress, what and what not to say and how to approach that special someone without being creepy.  Where to go, what to say and how to make a good first impression.  Then it goes on to discuss what can happen after the date and ways to handle it.  It can be rather specific but like some games, you have the freedom to choose your own adventure.

The highlight was the correlation to pop culture characters, like the X-men, Final Fantasy, Big Bang Theory, Dr. Who, etc.  My only issue was that there wasn't more.  I would've love to see more references and analyzing.  The pixelated images were okay.  And the condensed small print made it hard to read.  I know this is a minor thing for most people but I don't like all everything to on one page.  Bigger font and some spacing would really help me keep my attention.  But as is, I kept reading and stopping, reading and stopping. 

Is this for you?  This is not the ultimate geek guide by any means.  If you are looking for a dating guide with a smidgen of pop culture references and wry humor, this will be for you.  Everyone else?  Pass it by.  The information is easily found in other books and websites.  I didn't find it unique.  However, there were a few tidbits that I found interesting and entertaining.  Since I tend to be shy in social settings, the advice given can help me start up conversations without sounding lame.  It has a lot of common sense, which I appreciated, and had a decent amount of references to well-known characters.  By the end, I did enjoy this book even though I wouldn't read it again.

Note: I received this ARC from the Amazon Vine program for an honest review.