How to Find Love in Your Life:...

How to Find Love in Your Life: 90 Days to a Permanent Relationship by Ben Dominitz (Prima Publishing, P.O. Box 1206L, Rocklin, Calif. 95677-1260).

When it comes to matters of the heart, enough of those three-day “romantic” cruises, computer dates and singles-bars forays. Ben Dominitz puts his cards--or rather his Rolodex--on the table. Meeting a suitable POS (person of the opposite sex) is not a matter left to chance. Rather, a “permanent relationship,” not necessarily marriage, can be found by following his business formula.

Those in search of the “best single” are urged to practice sales and entrepreneur tactics. Begin by establishing a balance sheet of your assets and abilities; then establish an extensive list of contacts (everyone within a 100-mile radius who touches your life). Next, follow through by arranging a meeting over that romantic bromide, a cup of coffee. Once on a tete-a-tete basis, sell yourself through the familiar methods of making the POS feel special; hang on the others’ words “as an art” and--why not?--flirt. Liveliness, energy and shucking off shyness are also recommended.

Greatly to his credit, Dominitz brings hope to the lonely and yearning of both sexes, although meeting the Right One is going to be more difficult for women because there are between 7 million to 9 million more of them than men.

Some of this advice, based on common decency and folk wisdom, rings true. Some of it, lifted from a million movies--”You have the most wonderful eyes”--is outrageously corny. This guide contains nothing that a concerned mother won’t tell you for free. But when you pay hard cash for a book, and send for it through the mail to boot, perhaps its message will be taken to heart.