I'm from Venus, Hear Me Roar

OK, boys and girls. I finally got on the bandwagon of 1992 and bought a copy of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I would be lying if I said I'm not skeptical about this book. The whole experience is giving me deja vu of the time in college when I bought The Rules with my erstwhile best friend on a lark. We had been drinking coffee and complaining about our love lives in the Barnes & Noble Starbucks, and $9.95 seemed like a small price to pay for knowing how to stop wasting our time with idiot college boys who didn't know what they wanted. After reading the book, I found out that I paid an hour's wage to be told things my mother had been telling me for years ("girls don't call boys, boys call girls!" etc., etc.). Shortly thereafer, I learned that at least one of the two authors of the book got divorced. Not a very encouraging first-time experience with the self-improvement aisle.

Never being one to refuse someone, or in this case, something a second chance, however, I picked up John Gray's tome after having a discussion with my BFF Lauren. She told me that she knows a woman who swears by the book, even though she acknowledges that it seems silly. My initial skepticism lessened a little more when I brought the book up to the register and the man who rang me up told me that it had a lot of useful advice in it, and that he hoped I was buying it for the man in my life (I'm sure my bf would be thrilled with that reading assignment!).

So I am going to give it a try. Because, as the saying goes, I will continue to learn as long as there is something I do not know. Which means that I will be learning about relationships for a long, long time.

Photo courtesy of Jessica M, stock.xchng.