Reserve Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari | Reserve the audiobook (it’s better, anyway, according to Kelsey!)
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. The premise is intriguing and a few of the findings were definitely interesting.
In the end though, it felt like a book decrying how awful dating is nowadays. Perhaps I’m not the target audience but it just didn’t hit home with me. I did appreciate the ending in particular. Instead of chalking it up to the times, he does actually give a few suggestions to single people on the dating scene (things like: join clubs, go to the bookstore, GO OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOUSE, quit messaging and meet people face to face, etc).
What I really loved was the comparative research on attitudes regarding love and dating in the modern world. It was a short section, but the discussion of dating in Japan, Buenos Aires, New York, and Paris. I was also fascinated by the theory of “emerging adulthood” that Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg researched.
It did make me chuckle at times (especially because Aziz narrates the audiobook version!) but ultimately I didn’t find it a satisfying read. I wanted less about how frustrated people are with the dating scene and technology and more about the social science research. Oh well, it was worth the quick read.
-Kelsey