Читать книгу The Rules 2: More Rules to Live and Love By - Ellen Fein - Страница 4

Four years ago, when we set out to write The Rules, we knew that we had an important message to share. We believed in The Rules. We had seen them work time and time again in our own lives, in our close circle of girlfriends and an ever-widening circle of friends and acquaintances, as well as coworkers and relatives.

When our phones began ringing off the hook with dating questions and (eventually) success stories, we knew we had to write The Rules in book form to make it available to all women.

Lo and behold, The Rules became not just a best-selling book, but a phenomenon, revolutionizing dating practices both here in America and abroad.

In fact, The Rules became so popular that it achieved a kind of pop culture status. It was spoofed on Saturday Night Live (“Get the ring!”), used as the plot for several TV sitcoms, and also inspired a number of parody books including Breaking the Rules (“Stare straight at men and talk incessantly”) and Rules for Cats (“Don’t accept a trip to the vet after Wednesday”).

Suddenly, The Rules was everywhere! A financial publication ran an article on the rules for investing (“Don’t buy on Friday if your broker calls after Wednesday”) and a political columnist wrote that one presidential candidate might have won the election if he had just tried to be a “creature unlike any other.”

Why all the fuss? Why all the interest in The Rules when there are dozens of other dating books on the market? Why has The Rules become such a phenomenon?

The answer is simple: The Rules work! Unlike other dating books that are therapeutic and theoretical—that sound good, that give warm ’n fuzzy, meaningless, and misleading advice such as be yourself, don’t play games, tell a man how you feel, but don’t work in real life—The Rules tell the truth about dating and help you get Mr. Right!

The Rules take the analysis and angst out of dating. It’s simple. If he calls you, he likes you. If he doesn’t, Next! What does be yourself mean if that’s calling a man three times a day or staying on the phone for three hours? Why would anyone want to read a dating book that didn’t help you get the man you want to marry you?

Many people ask how we wrote a best-seller. To be honest, we were not trying to. We wrote The Rules to help women date with self-esteem and get married. Period.

While we are naturally thrilled by the success of the book, what’s been even more rewarding is seeing how women of all ages and all walks of life use The Rules to love themselves and marry Mr. Right. After three decades of haphazard dating—dutch treat, sex on the first date, and living together—these women are delighted that such a dating book exists.

“I wish I had known about The Rules ten years ago,” is the most frequent comment we hear.

“The Rules should be given out to all women at birth,” wrote another Rules fan.

The book hit a chord not only with single women in their twenties, thirties, and forties, but with mothers and grandmothers. “She won’t listen to me, maybe she’ll listen to you,” wrote one mom. Another mom told us she gave the book to her daughter and her daughter’s friends.

While many readers thanked us for the general guidelines provided in The Rules, just as many wrote and called asking for more specific answers to dating situations and problems—for example, rules for long-distance relationships, rules for getting back an ex-boyfriend, rules for dating a celebrity, rules for dating a coworker, rules for turning a male friend into a boyfriend, rules for dating services and on-line dating, and for advice on how to start a Rules support group, among many other topics.

We wrote The Rules II to answer all these questions—and to clarify any confusion you might have about rules in the first book, such as, “How will he know the real me if I do The Rules?” and “Can I ever call a man?”

We have included some success stories in The Rules II that we hope will inspire you to do The Rules. We hope to publish many more—perhaps yours!—in the future.

We look forward to your comments, questions, success stories, and wedding invitations!

Ellen and Sherrie