This is a terrible, awful book about being a Good Christian Man. @freckledspecs has already cut out the first 62 pages to use as craft material (a date usually reserved for op-shop surplus copies of Twilight and Fifty Shades). I'm going to livetweet what's left.

We start on page 63, in a chapter called "Men and women", with a story about Shanelle the curvaceous kleptomaniac. So that bodes well for this book's attitude towards women.

Then a "semi-serious" "values quiz", in which the author tells you that if you and your partner would answer differently to questions like "are we in this world to make it a better place, have fun, or amass a wonderful collection of furniture", then, "That might be a problem."

Given the sheer volume of "inanity presented as though it's anything other than inane", I'll probably skip commenting on most things in that vein. I say that having only read two pages.
(Although I admit I've already read most of the sex chapter. Which is as bad as you'd expect.)

"His approach to understanding love and marriage is rather like that of an accountant. His research team uses video sampling of a couple's interactions to predict whether they will divorce or stay together."

I have questions about your accountant.

The rest of this little section is about communication in relationships and seems mostly reasonable. But I'm still hung up on why old mate Biddulph's accountant is videotaping him.

"Happy couples keep a 'database' of their partner's world, a kind of mental map of their challenges, concerns, interests and values."

This sort of "metaphor to shiny newfangled computer terms written in quotes" seems to be pretty common in 90s writing!

Book's from 2010 though.

That said, I keep a literal list of things my partners do and don't like (yay ADHD coping strategies!) so I'm sorted.

"They keep this up to date..."

Well, shit.

We're now at the end of the "Men and women" chapter, which is summarised with bullet points, the first being:

• A young man rescues a girl from freezing to death, and discovers manhood is quite complex.

Not gonna lie, I really wish I could read that one.