"She Wants a Man, Not a Boy"

You asked her if she wanted to grab coffee. Then you asked if the time worked. Then you asked if the place was okay. Then you asked if she'd prefer tea.

Four questions. Four chances for her to say no. Four signals that you're terrified of making a decision.

Plan it. Pick the place. Pick the time. Tell her where to meet you. She'll either show up or she won't.

Either way, you look like a man instead of a scared little boy.

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"Books"

"You'll Never Feel READY to Walk Over"

Next Monday you'll feel more confident. After the gym you'll feel more confident. After one more drink you'll feel more confident. After you get a better haircut, a better jacket, a better job.

You've been "getting ready" for two years.

She's standing ten feet away right now. She'll be gone in four minutes. No amount of preparation will manufacture the courage that only comes from moving your feet.

Walk over. Stumble through the first sentence. Let it be clumsy. Let it be imperfect. You will feel more alive in those ten seconds than you have all month.

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BaronOfHair

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-Anything by Nabokov and Updike

-Glass Jaw by Eric Dezenhall


-Power by Jeff Pfeffer

-The Leadership Challene by Posner and Kountz
 
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Agamemnon43

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The Bible was mentioned in the context of understanding our world, expanding your views, etc...
And in that sense, it is the most principal book (rather a collection of books written by many people over a long period of time) of the western society. Whether you choose to believe the dogma part of it, the ethical core of the western society is based on judeo-christian teachings. And it is mostly all metaphorical- which is the part you can't seem to grasp. The Bible dogma still seems more real in comparison to books like "The Alchemist" and "100 years of solitude", lol, which are also regarded as great books of our time.

Most of the famous novels are made up stories- and for a reason. You can learn something from each one of them. More so from Dostoevsky than from Paulo Coelho, but still. Everything is that stood the test of time is worth trying to read.
 

DarwinTaurus

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I own or have read the majority of books in that list. I'm a book nut. I own around 1,000 books. Three full bookshelves, and the rest stored in plastic tubs all around my apartment.
 

Scaramouche

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Hi Baron of Hair,
You read Arthur Updike?...Bony the Black detective?.
 

"Stop Asking Your Friends What to Text Her"

Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."

You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.

She's been waiting forty minutes.

Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.

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BackInTheGame78

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Why? Cause all religious books are the pretty much a plagiarism between each other written by men making up stories like some virgin lady got pregnant by a pigeon and from a couple came the whole mankind? Pfffftttt give me a break, wait until you hear that santa clause was actually your parents and not a fat white bearded guy who flies in a sled giving gifts.
Or perhaps it requires having an intellect further than what you capabilities allow to understand.

One or the other.
 
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Gates of Fire

Couldn't recommend it enough

Also, The Black Company got me through some rough times. I think there are 10 books total. All worth it. What a ride!
 
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Empire of the Summer Moon. Spectacular book about the Comanche Indian warrior tribe

The 50th Law. My favorite self-help book.

Anything by Arthur Schopenhauer. All eye-opening reads.
 
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Storm of Steel. The best first person account of WW1.

Mine were of Trouble. The best first person account of the Spanish Civil War.

Journey to the End of the Night. One of the best dark novels ever written. I'm gonna reread this one soon
 

"She Laughed All Night. Then She Ghosted You. Here's Why."

Dinner ran three hours. She laughed at everything. You walked her to her car thinking this one's locked in.

Then: nothing. Two texts. No reply. What happened?

You did what most men do on a great date. You filled every silence, answered every question, and left her with nothing to wonder about. No mystery. Nothing to sit with when she got home.

Rule 3 of the "22 Rules" changes the ending: tell her a little, hold back the rest, and let her imagination do the chasing. The ghosting stops too.

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FlexpertHamilton

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Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
The Moral Animal by Robert Wright
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
Affective Neuroscience by Jaak Panksepp
The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Letters from A Stoic by Seneca
Sickness Unto Death by Kiekegaard
Treatise of Human Nature by Hume
Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky


Also hard for me to wanna plug self-help books, but Atomic Habits, Power of Now, and Radical Honesty, are pretty good too.
 
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Vanderdonck

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Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
Native Son - Richard Wright
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Nicholas & Alexandra - Robert Massie
 
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Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
The Moral Animal by Robert Wright
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
Affective Neuroscience by Jaak Panksepp
The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Letters from A Stoic by Seneca
Sickness Unto Death by Kiekegaard
Treatise of Human Nature by Hume
Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky


Also hard for me to wanna plug self-help books, but Atomic Habits, Power of Now, and Radical Honesty, are pretty good too.
Lighten up, brother!

Lol

I was never a big fan of fiction, but an internet fren put me on The Black Company series.

It's spectacular. You have a dark fantasy aspect, but also war tactics, courage and camaraderie.
 

"You Can't Argue a Woman Into Liking You"

You made your case like a lawyer. Stable job. Good guy. Ready for something real. All true. All irrelevant.

She weighed your points, nodded along, felt nothing — then fell hard for some tattooed bartender with a motorcycle and a gambling problem.

Logic is where attraction goes to die. The "22 Rules" work a level deeper, on the subconscious switches that decide within minutes whether you register as a MAN or as part of the furniture.

Stop presenting evidence. Start flipping switches.

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FlexpertHamilton

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Lighten up, brother!

Lol

I was never a big fan of fiction, but an internet fren put me on The Black Company series.

It's spectacular. You have a dark fantasy aspect, but also war tactics, courage and camaraderie.
I'm trying to get into fiction more for sure because it does offer something that nonfiction can't. And I shamelessly admit to still loving the Harry Potter books and some other children/young adult fiction like Eragon or The Amulet of Samarkand. I will have to add The Black Company series to my list, it sounds like a fun read.

Here's all the fiction books on my book list that I will eventually buy:

Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky
We by Zamyatin
1984 by Orwell
Norwegian Wood by Murakami
Oblivion: Stories
Three Body Problem
Ringworld
Expedition — Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV
All Tomorrows
 
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I'm trying to get into fiction more for sure because it does offer something that nonfiction can't. And I shamelessly admit to still loving the Harry Potter books and some other children/young adult fiction like Eragon or The Amulet of Samarkand. I will have to add The Black Company series to my list, it sounds like a fun read.

Here's all the fiction books on my book list that I will eventually buy:

Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky
We by Zamyatin
1984 by Orwell
Norwegian Wood by Murakami
Oblivion: Stories
Three Body Problem
Ringworld
Expedition — Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV
All Tomorrows
I hadn't really read fiction since i was kid. I went through a self-help phase, combined with a philosophy phase, plus i love war history. So that's been the majority of my reading and i have plenty of those recommendations.

As far as fiction in my older age:

Journey to the End of the Night, by Celine. Dark and poetic.. If you enjoy dark humor, this is it.

Robert Heinlein is great for science fiction. I discovered him and read all of his books. He would be considered a libertarian now, but his books were controversial at the time. Spectacular mind on that guy

The Black Company spoke to me though. A band of mercenaries, with all their flaws, having to fight powerful sorcerers. I read 5 books in 2 months
 

RickTheToad

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FlexpertHamilton

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Here's a good list from the community

Some of those are solid for sure (Aaron Clarey's for instance) but it's mostly PUA and self help which is cringe in excess.... Guess it depends what your goals are, are we assuming the reader is only interested in improving success with women? Regardless, these strike me as prototypical 'bro' books that aren't particularly well rounded but are mostly pontifications and ideological, matter-of-fact prose from randos that could all be the same person. How about some evolutionary biology/psychology/philosophy or some left fielders such as "Women" by Charles Bukowksi?
 
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RickTheToad

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Some of those are solid for sure (Aaron Clarey's for instance) but it's mostly PUA and self help which is cringe in excess.... Guess it depends what your goals are, are we assuming the reader is only interested in improving success with women? Regardless, these strike me as prototypical 'bro' books that aren't particularly well rounded but are mostly pontifications and ideological, matter-of-fact prose from randos that could all be the same person. How about some evolutionary biology/psychology/philosophy or some left fielders such as "Women" by Charles Bukowksi?
Not bro books at all. They encompass the idea at SS.
 

"Why Women Dump the Guys Who Try the Hardest"

You paid for dinner. You drove. You said "whatever you want is fine" every single time. All the effort, no expectations.

And she left anyway — probably for a guy who makes her pick up the pizza.

Painful. Also predictable. Her mind quietly concludes that anything requiring zero effort from her is worth exactly zero. You became a free sample, and free samples get taken for granted.

The 22 Rules flip the dynamic. Small shifts that get her investing effort, money, and time in you — until SHE'S the one afraid of losing YOU.

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