Weekly non-fiction

OK, so my weekly trip to the library's non-fiction isle this week yielded "Unhooked Generation", a relationship book about why so many Gen-Xers have trouble with long-term relationships.

It wasn't exactly written by a Ph.D. psychologist...the author used to work for Oprah. I admit that I came close to putting it back when I learned that (I'm not much into TV culture anymore), but I had read enough to notice that she did have some interesting points. I think one of her better points was that we need to throw out the "checklist". We've become such a consumerist culture that we think we can find relationships like we shop for cars and computers. Sites like match.com (where you chose everything about your potential mate's appearance except for cup size and penis length) don't help. It ends up undermining the whole process because even if we do find someone that matches a good portion of the overspecified and sometimes conflicting checklist, the second you run into problems you have a tendency to think "well, maybe I can find something that matches the list better", instead of actually working to resolve problems and build a relationship.

Anyway, not a bad read. Most of her ovservations and conclusions are based on a large number of interviews she did with people around the country (she is a Journalist by training), and it was good enough that I read it in one sitting.