A review by filipeanut
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss

3.0

This book is supposed to help men who have never gained the attention of someone they liked or appreciated, realize that they can actually get the attention of anyone. After that, its up to the guy to stop using the lines, and start using words that represent them. Why use fake lines to impress a girl, when you can be yourself and meet someone who may in fact be more like you?

A man should value himself first before trying to attract women he thinks may be of value to him. Men need to realize that it is in valuing themselves that women and anyone in general will value them.

This book could have helped with that, but it would have been nice if Neil Strauss stressed it a bit more. Instead, Strauss is capitalizing off the sex side of the book business, rather than the inspirational or life-uplifting side of it. Which is understandable. Sex sells. And it is in fact an underground society. The book is as "nitty-gritty" as it's subject.

Everyone wants love and attention, but not everyone gets it. And if you can find a way to help yourself without hurting others, the lines and methods in the book can help. It's not the only way, but its one of them.

And like any other tool, it isn't the tool itself that can cause pain, it is the person using the tool. Men who use the lines merely to have sex with random people reap what they sow. They also forget about focusing on who they are and making themselves better, rather than having sex with more and more women. There's magic in a relationship that is created by chance, rather than by choice. If you want to choose partners for sex, you might as well get a hooker. But you cannot choose your soulmates.

3 stars because Strauss doesn't express enough the underlying reasons behind strong relationships and the pitfalls behind sexual ones. Plus, its very long. But I must admit I myself wouldn't have come to these conclusions until I tried the lines myself. I didn't learn to ride a bike by riding one without training wheels.