I Kissed Dating Goodbye

I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A New Attitude Toward Relationships And Romance by Joshua Harris

I had heard about this book as part of Christian contemporary culture but also as part of some Quirkyalone type thing. It's generalized thesis--"You shouldn't date and you shouldn't feel bad about not dating because dating is lame." very much fits in with the whole ethos. However, the more specific thesis being "You shouldn't date because God doesn't want you to and if you date you are giving parts of your heart away to people who aren't your God-chosen spouse." was a little much. Since I wholeheartedly agree with the general thesis, I didn't need much convincing, but this book was more for convincing by telling you God was unhappy with everything you do in your dating life. I can see how people who aren't supposed to have sex before marriage might get way too into dating since they have to get married to have sex, but there are reasons outside of religion for not dating as well, and so it was sort of annoying not to see those included much.

Perhaps I made the mistake of reading two christian books in a row, but this one is waaaaaaaaay christier than "blue like jazz." i ended up skimming because it was just too much. It is amusing that EVERY couple in this book "doesn't intend" to have sex, but then does. I thought that was pretty funny. It does make a lot of points I agree with that aren't being made very loudly in general culture (ie, our culture is frigteningly against being alone ever, and that's creepy and wrong; media portrays a bizarre unrealistic image of beauty/romance that apparently some people are too stupid to realize is not reality, getting married/dating just because you are supposed but not because you actually are in love is dumb, most people who date are just screwing and are not really in love, they just think they are, etc.), so that was good.

But, I'd really only recommend this if you are a born-again Christian who has been led astray from the path by dating. In that case it's pretty practical. However, I doubt I have many readers (ha) in that category, so carry on without this book.