Friday, December 29, 2006

Review: Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs

Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs: The Girls & Sports Dating and Relationship Playbook
by Justin Borus & Andrew Feinstein
Santa Monica Press, $14.95

Opening Lines... attempts to serve two purposes: as a collection of strips from the syndicated Girls & Sports comic strip, and as a dating guide for (heterosexual) men.

On the plus side, it's an attractively designed book; it integrates the full-color strips with tips and advice from the comic characters, with the strips and tips organized by theme (rather than chronologically as one finds in most strip collections). There's plenty of variety, with text blocks, charts, word balloons, etc. I suppose if one is a fan of the strip, this will be a winning collection.

However, I can't say that I personally am a fan of the strip. Yes I like sports, and yes I'm a single male; but G&S seems to have at its core a view of the relationship between the sexes that I don't cater to, namely one that is combative and where a person has to essentially trick a potential mate.

But then again I'm currently single, so what the heck do I know?

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

(A review copy of this book was provided by one of the authors.)