Book Review: For Young Men Only

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Recently I was asked to read and review “For Young Men Only.”  I’m only 31, and that’s pretty young, so I should be a good fit for this book.  Right?  No.  I’m not even close.  I’ve read it though, and now I am fully qualified to date teenage girls. 

The target audience for this book is probably the 10-15 year old boy.  Most boys younger than that wouldn’t be interested, and most older than that would be too “cool” (or whatever word they use these days) for the content.

The premise of the book is basically this:  “you’re a dumb kid who’s stressed to no end over figuring out girls, so we went out and asked a bunch of girls about certain topics, and we’ll explain to you what they said.”

Sounds simple enough.  I won’t say there was anything I read in the book that was groundbreaking for me, but I’m significantly older than 10, I’m married, and I’ve got 2 kids.  I haven’t figured everything out, but I’m doing ok.  I will admit though, that if I was in the target demographic for the book, I probably would have appreciated it.  It was written in a very straightforward manner, and it was an extremely easy book to read.

There are 2 things that concern me about this book.  First, who is going to give a 10 year old boy a book like this?  The parents could, but it would be a little awkward.  “Here, Son.  We don’t want to talk to you about girls, so read this book.”  No thanks.  Maybe a youth pastor could give it away, but then again I’m not sure it’s the place of a youth pastor to give a young boy a book that talks about what young girls think about sex.  Maybe that’s just me.  If nothing else, this is good for the “put it on the shelf and let the boys come find it” category.

Second, the authors are Christians, and they went out of their way to try to write it as a non-Christian book.  The intent there seemed to be that whether you go to church or not, this is the book for you.  It’s great that they’re trying for the broad reach, but in the end, they ended up coming across as Christians trying not to come across as Christians.  If anything, that just weakens your message and your credibility.

Overall, it wasn’t bad.  If you’re 10-15 and male (or if you still have absolutely no clue about what girls think about certain topics), check it out.  I’ve got 2 copies up for grabs here for the first 2 people that want them.  If you want one, leave me a comment or drop me an email (ron(at)moreron(dot)com), and I’ll hook you up.

Tagged as: Book Reviews