About this site

Appetite and desire are human nature. — Gaozi, in the Mencius

That line is the motto of this site. Wanting to be liked, wanting to get close to someone, is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. What deserves suspicion is never desire itself, only the habits that grow once desire is packaged as "technique" and sold to you.

Attraction Library is a catalogue of 82 dating and social-skills ebooks that circulated in the Chinese-speaking "pickup" community between roughly 2000 and 2015. Most of them are Chinese translations of Western titles; the rest were written by Chinese authors. Every book here has been read and given an outline, a one-paragraph statement of its core idea and a short, honest review.

Why it exists

This literature is easy to find and hard to evaluate. Some of it is genuinely useful advice about confidence, conversation and taking care of yourself. Some of it is dated, and some of it treats other people as targets to be managed. The point of the catalogue is to let you tell those apart before spending hours on a book.

What we deliberately left out

Ten books from the original collection are not published here. They teach emotional manipulation and psychological control (the "five-step trap" school and similar). Training of that kind has been shut down by regulators in China, and we do not think it belongs in a learning resource. They are listed nowhere on this site and are not available for download.

Our position

Healthy dating starts from honesty, respect and the other person's willingness. Techniques that depend on deception, pressure or exploiting insecurity are not skills; they are harm. Where a book crosses that line the review says so.

Copyright

The ebooks were gathered from public sources. Copyright belongs to their authors and publishers. If you hold the rights to a title and want it removed, contact us and it will be taken down promptly.

The study guide

The only paid item on this site is our own study guide: an original handbook that lays out a reading path through the library, explains the core concepts with a modern perspective, and includes a 30-day plan. Buying it supports the hosting and maintenance of the free library.