The Shy Guy's Guide to Dating: The Best Places to Meet Women, the Ten Best Pickup Lines, How to Tell if She Likes You, Eleven Women to Avoid, Do's and ... What Girls Say...and What They Really Mean (Paperback)

by Barry Dutter (Author) "This book is designed to help Shy Guy take a one-way trip out of Shy Town and into Confidenceville, USA-population: You!..." (more)
Key Phrases: persistent guy, pickup artists, guys tend, Third Wheel, Clueless Boy, Sex Goddesses (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The authoritative guide that will take shy guys everywhere-from the first date to home plate.

"Hey baby, what's your sign?" "Come here often?"

These lines may work in the movies, but not in real life, and not for the millions of guys too shy to risk their dignity on such flimsy pickup lines. Barry Dutter knows, he used to be a shy guy himself, sitting at home night after night watching television because asking a woman for a date was simply too scary.

Not anymore. He's learned dozens of tricks to help shy guys ease into the swing of dating while avoiding humiliating rejections and romantic disasters. Keeping a shy guy's tender ego in mind, he tells guys where to meet women, which ones to approach and which to avoid. Readers will learn what to do with them, and how to act from the first date through commitment time. Filled with hilarious lessons from the pop culture we grew up in, this witty, commonsense guide is a must for everyone who's ever been afraid to try-which means everyone.


About the Author
Former shy guy Barry Dutter lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he is a stand-up comedian and a writer for cartoons like The Simpsons and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Girls love him.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312187572
• ISBN-13: 978-0312187576
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #723,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worthless for the truly shy guy, April 8, 2002

By A Customer

I believe that this book may be worthwhile for the guy who is outgoing with guys, but is shy with girls. That is, someone who has plenty of guy friends, but no girlfriend. However, for those of us who suffer from social anxiety and low self-esteem, this book doesn't have the answers. Mr. Dutter simply says to go up to a girl and start talking to her. If I could do that, I wouldn't have needed this book!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Talks the talk...but doesn't walk the walk, December 18, 1999

By A Customer

Dutter starts out the book with a great "I feel your pain" chapter that made me have high hopes for this book. However, the Dutter does not actually offer a way for a shy guy to overcome his shyness and go up to a pretty woman in a bar (let alone strike up a successful conversation with her). Instead, Dutter suggests waiting by the ladies room and letting women approach you, lowering your standards, and acting like "Clueless Guy" to convince women that you can't take care of yourself on your own. It's a bit entertaining at times, but certainly not helpful.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars OH MY GOD I can't believe it got published., March 6, 2005

By	The Poe Toaster (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

I don't even know where to begin to describe how worthless this boook is.

It's mainly a bunch of trite dribble that leaves you going "Well, duh!" I mean, this author comes across with this attitude that he has all these dating secrets figured out and he's this enlightened dating master when the fact is that this is very basic stuff that anyone with even minimal social skills has already figured out a long time ago. And if your social skills are so bad that you actually benefit from any of the advice in this book, you can pretty much forget about dating women. Well, forget about dating attractive ones, anyway.

This author writes things that are either already widely-known, worthless, or both, then has the audacity to actually go "There, now you know blah blah whatever it was." What a loser!!

Examples: this guy actually advises you to use the old "Mistaken Identity Ploy", in which you start a conversation with a girl by acting like you recognize her from somewhere. Come on!! Sure, it could work, but that's not the point. The point is I already knew that one!! Everybody does!! If you're selling a book on something, put some original material in it!!

This guy also recommends walking up behind a girl and tapping her on the shoulder. He says it sends a clear message that she's the one you're interested in. Is he serious? I can't think of anything more rude than being tapped on the shoulder, and I've seen idiots in nightclubs do it. EVERY time, the girl turns around, looks at him, realizes she's just been touched by someone she doesn't know, turns back around, and ignores him. You can bet that nothing that guy does for the rest of the night is going to get that girl talking to him.

As a bouncer, I cannot count the times I've been approached by pretty girls and asked to grab some moron by the scruff of the neck and throw him out of the club for doing most of the useless, extremely unadvisable crap in this worthless book. I don't often return books, but this one's going RIGHT back to the store RIGHT NOW.