I just finished reading The Average American Male, which is a novel about the actual thoughts that go through a man's head as he cycles through feeling trapped in a relationship, freeing himself and finding excitement, adventure and love with a hotter girl and eventually feeling trapped again.

If that makes it sound touchy-feely, it's not. About 85% of the book is comprised of descriptions of sexual acts or thoughts about sexual acts. The author even apologizes to his parents in the afterward and hopes the publication of the book doesn't cause them to lose any friends. Personally, I hope they're proud of him -- the book is brilliant.

On a sociological level, this one's being passed around among quarterlife males who do not much read much. But because it reads like a transcription of our own thoughts, dudes are flagging down other dudes and saying, "Finally, someone expresses what we feel forced to edit."

(A personal note: the book is set in and around UCLA, so when the characters go to Fatburger or In-N-Out, I get to revisit the actual locations, which is nice since I'm overdue for a trip to LA. And, additionally, since the author was a USC film student, I get the additional pleasure of noting that now not only are those types filming their movies at the better campus, they're setting their books there too.)

I'd almost suggest that any quarterlife woman who's interested in understanding her boyfriend pick up this book, but with certain rare exceptions, I doubt you'd be able to handle it. (I know this because once I suggested to a girlfriend that the Zach Braff character's anxiety over settling down in Last Kiss was understandable and was made out to be some kind of uncaring asshole as a result.) But if you're a twenty-something dude, you should definitely give this one a read.