FOREWORD

      Let me tell you the story of how I decided to write The Real Rules:

      One day in the fall of 1996, I was having lunch with several female friends. As we started on our salads, one of the women asked: “So Barbara, what do you think of that book everyone’s talking about—The Rules?” Now, I’d heard about this book which supposedly tells women how to get a man to marry them, but hadn’t actually seen it, so I answered frankly, “I haven’t read it.”

      “You haven’t?” She reached into her purse and handed me a small paperback. “Here—someone in my office just gave me this as a joke. You aren’t going to believe this book!”

      Now I was intrigued. Naturally, over the years, as a leading authority on relationships, I’ve always been asked my opinion about other books on love, but even when I’ve disagreed with the author’s thinking, I have never publicly criticized what I’ve read—that’s just not my style. And so I was