Reading Notes on 200+ Pickup Ebooks
PUA? The Study of Picking Up Girls?
PUA is short for "Pickup Artists." Common Chinese translations include:
- "The art of courtship" — whoever came up with this doesn't understand PUA at all. PUA isn't "courtship."
- "Approach artist" — a literal translation.
- "Pickup master" — the one that feels most apt to me.
- "Pickup studies" — a more localized rendering.
Mystery once proposed the term "social dynamics," so I lean toward calling the theory behind PUA "the study of picking up girls." My discussion of PUA here is purely theoretical research 🤣
Negative coverage of PUA keeps piling up, and the word has been badly stigmatized — it's practically become a synonym for scamming women out of their money and bodies. As someone who systematically studied the classic PUA texts, I find this disappointing.
For more detail, see the Wikipedia entry on PUA, and the corresponding Chinese entry "Seduction Community". Baidu Baike also has a PUA entry.
The History of Pickup Studies, As I Understand It
I got into this field starting around 2013. As I understand it, the history of pickup studies, both abroad and domestically, went roughly like this:
- Before the 1990s, there wasn't much systematic material on pickup studies to be found — mostly preachy stuff, and China had its own version of that too.
- In the 1990s, as the internet took off, some players began trading pickup techniques via mailing lists and BBS forums, and various schools of thought started to form.
- Around 2000, Mystery began to make a name for himself.
- Around 2005, Mystery's The Mystery Method was published, and Style's The Game, along with news articles he wrote, introduced the pickup community to a wider audience. Pickup studies began entering public view.
- In 2007, Mystery hosted a pickup-studies TV show (The Pickup Artist), marking pickup studies' full arrival in public consciousness. Around this same time, domestic pickup groups in China started forming too. As I recall, this was also around when Chinese pickup gurus started appearing on TV programs — though by most accounts these appearances went poorly, and I can't find the old footage anymore. Training groups and forums were established around this time, and the training was still relatively "legitimate."
- By around 2009, the domestic pickup community was thriving, splitting and reforming repeatedly. It was also from this point that pickup studies started to "go off the rails," mainly for financial reasons, and secondarily for moral ones. Honestly, the training run by those early masters was probably still good — the scary part was the people who never grasped the essence of it and had bad intentions to begin with.
- Since 2017, China began exposing PUA's misdeeds, and pickup studies got thoroughly stigmatized (the truth is, it was never really viewed positively to begin with).
- In 2018, "91 God" Mr. Hang was arrested — turns out he was a PUA master too?!
- There are still people in China paying attention to the pickup community, such as this piece on where China's top-ten PUAs from 2009 ended up.
- In July 2020, another "91 God," Mr. Tang, was arrested, and PUA got dragged out and flogged all over again.
Pickup studies has only been developing for about 20 years abroad, and about 10 domestically. I was lucky enough to get in during the middle of that timeline — pretty impressive, honestly.
My Own Story
In 2013, I was an unmarried man past the usual age, going through all sorts of rough times, feeling thoroughly down. I remembered some pickup ebooks someone had shared on a Firefox forum that I'd downloaded but never read, and I dug them out to study.
At first, whenever I told people I was studying pickup techniques, everyone's reaction was negative. "Finding a girlfriend should be about genuine feelings, not tricks." "Pickup studies is a scam." "You, get a girlfriend? Ha." "Look at so-and-so — he took a girl to a hotel room back in high school. Look at you, reading those trashy books — you think that'll get you a girlfriend?" And when I said my minimum target was landing the "prettiest girl in class," nobody believed I could pull it off. But I didn't give up — I patiently worked through book after book, and held firm faith in pickup technique.
Today my girlfriend (we got married in 2017) was the "prettiest girl in the department" back then, and I love telling the story as my personal inspiration: back then I said I'd learn pickup and land the prettiest girl in class — none of you believed me. Well, look now.
I'm no pickup master, just someone who's "been through it." If you ask me, pickup studies is a genuine science — a crossover between sociology and psychology. It can be used for casual hookups and one-night stands, and it can equally be used for serious relationships. At its core, pickup studies is about self-improvement; its primary purpose is improving how men relate to women, though the techniques apply just as well to all other interpersonal relationships — even job interviews. After all these years, if I had to sum it up in one line, I'd borrow a Buddhist phrase: it is true and without falsehood. Learn pickup, and it serves you for life.
Below is the table of contents of the books I read back then. The first batch are Western classics, which I read many times over; in the middle are some domestic (Chinese) works, some of which are quite good too; the last batch are forum posts and the like that others compiled — many are incomplete, and the quality is all over the place. The comments below each title are what I wrote right after finishing the book, with occasional later additions. They're written simply, but I hope they help whoever's reading this.
I'm not providing the ebooks themselves here — I trust someone as resourceful as you can find them.
There are generous people online sharing this material — thanks to them. Here are a couple of sources I've come across recently:
https://gitee.com/it-ebooks/pua-books
https://chriszheng.science/pua-books/
Western Classics
The Mystery Method
Finished. This is the most famous, most classic manual in pickup studies. The author, "Mystery," wasn't the founder of pickup studies, but it was in his hands that the field truly took off. The M3 model, the terminology, and the range of scenarios covered in this book are all excellent. Compared to other books, though, its analysis of psychology is a bit thin.
Real-World Seduction Techniques
Finished. Felt so-so. The framework is worth studying — a genuinely idealized theoretical model — but I don't entirely agree with a certain mindset it reveals, though practice guided by that mindset might well still work.
The Game
Finished. I read a scanned copy, and it was hard to make out. This is the one I found most interesting, because it's a first-person account of the pickup community — the author, "Style," writes about his own journey learning pickup, weaving in a ton of technique along the way, and it reads like a novel. This book is great for understanding the history of pickup studies and its various schools of thought.
The Rules of the Game (The Pickup Artist 2)
Finished. Lays out a 30-day training plan structured as daily missions. Stick with it and you should come out the other side transformed.
David X's Method (Complete Edition)
Finished. Felt pretty mediocre. Too extreme — verging on overcorrection. If this stuff genuinely fires someone up, fine, but otherwise it just reads like someone ranting.
Double Your Dating (2nd Edition)
Finished. The theoretical depth is a bit lacking, but as one of the "three classics" (the other two being The Mystery Method and the "Real-World Seduction" book), its treatment of actual field practice is excellent.
The Cocky & Funny Guide (Complete Edition)
I don't think I actually read this one, but it's another Western work.
The Revelation
Written by one of Mystery's students. A comprehensive masterwork of pickup studies, though somewhat dense — you really need to have read the earlier books before tackling this one.
Pickup Terminology Glossary (Complete Edition)
A glossary. Fairly thorough compilation.
The Juggler Method
I read this one later, and felt a real "wish I'd found this sooner" pang. It emphasizes communication and has a lot of good material in it.
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
Doesn't really count as pickup studies, but it's apparently a famous book. I only read a little of it.
Kinesthetics
Another "wish I'd found this sooner" one. A summary of kinesthetic (touch-based) technique.
Domestic (Chinese) Guides
The domestic material is much lower quality than the Western stuff overall. That said, the parts with distinctly Chinese characteristics are worth a look, and there's also value in seeing how domestic authors understood pickup theory.
China's PUA Growth Path (Complete Edition)
Finished. A summary drawing on various books.
The Economics of Dating Investment (Complete Edition)
Finished. What's good about it is that it compares Chinese and Western approaches — its Chinese-specific angle is the real selling point. It also uses investment-theory concepts to frame the efficiency problem in pickup, explicitly arguing that "if you're spending too much time and energy, it doesn't really count as pickup" — a fairly original point.
Picking Up Girls on a Budget
Skimmed. Not really my thing, didn't read much of it.
How to Pick Up Beautiful Women Without Money or Looks
QQ Pickup Experiences
Skimmed. A domestic work, very short, not much to it.
Strategies for Pursuing Pretty Girls — Complete Clean Edition
Finished. Domestic experience — somewhat different from the Western classics, but the underlying theoretical model connects with the three classics, and it covers a range of scenarios too.
The Wolf Pack Bible (Final Complete Edition) (Seasons 1–3)
The Compass for Men (a strong book tailored to Chinese conditions)
The Ultimate Guide to Online Dating, Revisited (Final Compiled Edition)
Dating Secrets: Advanced
Finished. Covers attraction, and feels pretty similar in content to the "Real-World Seduction" book — really, it's the same underlying framework either way.
The Forbidden Book of Dating
The Good Man's Wicked Ways, Series 2: The Battlefield of Money and Looks
Seems to be a Hong Kong/Taiwan work. Didn't find it very interesting.
The Complete Men's Training Lectures
Salvation for the Timid
The Secrets to Winning in the Dating Game That You Must Know
The Code of Body Language
58 Things Women Most Want Men to Do
Dating Essentials
The Academy of Love
The Psychology of Love
Only read the opening. Written by a domestic author over a decade ago — way too preachy, not much worth taking from it.
Personality and Destiny: The Chinese Enneagram
War of the Sperm
Related Skills for Pickup Studies
These aren't pickup studies per se, but they're worth learning. Cold reading, for instance — pickup manuals touch on it a bit, but these books go much deeper.
Instant Trust Through Cold Reading
Finished. Possibly the first work to introduce the term "cold reading," with a systematic treatment of the subject. The author is Japanese, and the logical rigor lags behind Western works — it's heavily practice-focused, and some parts felt a bit muddled to me. Still, that doesn't diminish its standing in the field of cold reading.
Cold reading and pickup studies are two separate fields. From a pickup perspective, cold reading is a technique, not an end in itself. You learn cold reading to pick up better — worth keeping in mind so you don't lose the plot.
Introductory Guide to Hypnosis
Skimmed. Focused on the basics — this was the PDF version; there's a txt version too. Helpful for understanding and learning hypnosis. Same point as before: you learn this stuff in service of pickup.
Lectures on Palmistry and Physiognomy
The Secret to Training a Magnetic Voice
How to Practice a Captivating Gaze
The British SAS Ab Training Program
How to Do 100 Consecutive Push-ups in 6 Weeks (Illustrated Edition)
Effective Methods for Overcoming Masturbation
Heh, didn't read it.
How to Tell From a Distance Whether a Woman Is a Virgin
Heh, didn't read it.
100 Consecutive Push-ups in Six Weeks
FBI Mind-Reading Techniques
Skimmed through, don't remember any of it.
The Laws of NLP Psychology
Finished. Didn't feel very practical.
NLP and Seduction
Finished. Same as above, not very practical. Can't even remember what was in it now.
A Bit of Amazing Hypnosis Every Day
Read it a while back. Felt pretty good, quite interesting. But there's some pseudo-mystical stuff in there I don't really buy into.
Several Methods for Strengthening Kidney Function + Life Extension Prescriptions
Heh, didn't read it.
Cold Reading
A very short piece.
Secret Advanced Hypnosis (Complete Edition), by Qian Shouhai
Not very scientific.
How to Practice a Captivating Gaze
Lectures on Palmistry and Physiognomy
Astrology 1.0
Not really my thing.
Astrology 2.0
Not really my thing.
Magic Tricks Liu Qian Recommends for Picking Up Girls (girls stay out, don't share)
Professional Hypnotist Training Course
Read Anyone in 5 Minutes: See Through Anybody
Advanced Hypnosis Techniques Compilation
Self-Hypnosis: A Self-Therapy for Eliminating Psychological Problems
Routines
50 Essential Techniques for Attracting Beautiful Women + 84 Great Field Routines
This batch of routine collections are all pretty similar in nature — just examples with no real explanation. Fine to skim through.
Classic Pickup Line Routine Library v5
Super Dating Studies V7 Complete Edition
128 Progressively Deeper Chat Topics With Girls
How to Make a Girl Both Annoyed and Amused With One Line
DHV Filler Material — Coffee Shop Magic Tricks
DHV Filler Material — Stories Behind 100 World Landmarks
DHV Filler Material — Highlights from 100 Literary Classics
DHV Filler Material — Chinese Knot-Tying Tutorial (a Must for Chinese Guys)
DHV Filler Material — Famous Chinese Love Poems
Skimmed. A lot of it is fairly obscure — I'd guess most women wouldn't even recognize the references.
DHV Filler Material — 5000 Funny Jokes and Text Messages
DHV Filler Material — 593 Brain Teasers with Answers
DHV Filler Material — 44 Classic Comedy Routines
DHV Filler Material — Pickup Comedy Material
DHV Filler Material — Complete Jokes of Wu Zongxian
DHV Filler Material — 30 Tender Lines That Move Women
DHV Filler Material — 100 Classic Quotes from Guo Degang
DHV Filler Material — 100 Classic Movie Lines That Would Impress Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat
Bar Pickup Lines — 45 Classic Toasts and Drink-Deflecting Lines
38 Small Games to Play With Girls at the Bar
Classic Comedy Line Routines — Stephen Chow, Ge You & Wong Kar-wai Compilation
100 Humor Techniques That Will Change Your Life
The 42 Most Handsome Moments for a Man
The Details That Drive Women Wild About a Man
50 Insights Every Unmarried Man Should Read
Skimmed. Feels like "canned drink" filler material — generic and interchangeable.
Wu Zongxian's Forty Classic Lines
[Highlights] — Fifty Essential Techniques and Routines Showcase
The Essence of One Hundred Literary Classics, Condensed
Fifteen Lines
Chat Topics
A Collection of Routines
The Top 100 Famous Chinese Love Poems
Classic Movie Lines Worth Collecting for Life
50 Essential Techniques for Attracting Beautiful Women + 84 Great Field Routines
Wu Zongxian's Jokes
Assorted Field Reports and Reflections
A Compilation of Choice Cases from National-Level PUA Coldlove V1
QQ Transcript: The Full Process of Approaching a White-Collar Married Woman
A Player's Life
Mysterious Pickup Material — The Mystery of Seduction
10-out-of-10 Girls via NLP Pickup Methods (a book from The Game, China's first pickup community)
Magic Bullets [Book One], from The Game
PUA's Deep Analysis of Human Nature
[Date Beijing Gathering] Fragments of Memory from Recent Nightclub Outings
A Big Wolf's Thirty-Two Lessons on Picking Up Girls
The Art of Phone Calls With Girls (Classic)
Two Chats With a Strong-Frame Girl, Using Multiple Routines to Build Attraction (With Self-Analysis)
Signature Lines
China's PUA Growth Path
China's PUA Growth Path — Digital Complete Edition
Picking Up Girls on a Budget
Strategies for Pursuing Pretty Girls — Complete Clean Edition
Cold-Cold's Heartbreak Technique
Coldlove's September 17th Lecture Notes
Great DHV, Affection-Signaling and Implication Routines to Use While Eating
The Revelation 2
The Solution for When You Don't Know What to Say to a Woman: Chained Topic Blocks
The Art of War and the Laws of Picking Up Girls
Street Approach Art ~V1~.~1~2009.05.26
Getting a Girl to Say She Loves You in 30 Minutes
The Ultimate Guide to Online Dating, Revisited — Final Compiled Edition
PUACN China Pickup Studies Journal V2.0
QQ-Flow Theory
QQ-Flow Practical Operations Manual ~1~.2
QQ-Flow in the Field
Notes from Picking Up Girls on QQ
QQ Transcript: The Full Process of Approaching a White-Collar Married Woman
TD'd, and I'm Not Happy! [By Count, from the 17date Beijing Group]
"Pickup Master Interview," Episode 3 — Coldlove
Pickup Master Interview, Episode 2 — Lost Wolf (forum ID: Song of the Siren)
Pickup Master Interview, Episode 1 — Mr. Mediocre (Super Saiyan)
The Mystery of Seduction
The Compass for Men: On Online Dating
[Coldlove Recommends] Heizi Tells His Own Story (Part 1) (by Heizi, from The Game, China's first pickup community)
[Charge the Club!] Post-Outing Field Report — Comments Welcome
[Weekly Star Post] Closed the Deal With a Dance Teacher in One Night, With Pics [Coldlove's Commentary]
[Weekly Star Post] Memories of a Trip to Tianjin — Mystery Drunk, Proud and Wild
[Weekly Star Post] A Hugely Rewarding Field Experience — The Mystery Method Works Wonders
[Weekly Star Post] Bagging Twin Sisters at a Nightclub (by Diamond, from The Game, China's first pickup community)
The High of Picking Up Girls — A Weekend of Romantic Misadventures
(southerncrossst) A Fairly Complete Field Report and a Ton of Theory From a Trip Home (by Guojing, from The Game's prep group)
Alpha Attraction — 33 Rules for Winning at Pickup, Chinese Edition
Andy's Story 1 — Attracting an 8-out-of-10 Nurse on the Bus
Case Study: Building Attraction Through Text, With Detailed Analysis and How to Improve
The Lollipop Investment — Dating a 7-out-of-10 Girl from East Gate
[Must Read] Crushing a Girl's Anti-Slut Defense With Strong Persuasion [By Silverwing, from The Game, China's first pickup community]
The Complete Guide to Ultimate Cross-Gender Attraction
Super Dating Studies: Classic Lines ~V1~
The Grand Collection of Approach Routines — Field-Tested Opening Lines
Text Message Routines — A Collection of Texts Dedicated to Pickup
100 Things to Watch Out for When You're With a Girl
Secrets to Talking With Women
Routines
Party Games
A Pickup Master's Magic-Trick-Based Routines
Material
Material 11
Material 4
Six Tricks for Accurately Reading Other People's Minds
Clever Answers to Girls' Questions
Nan Da Jie: Closing With a Bold 7-out-of-10 Girl (Well... Not Quite)
Why Do Men Have Nipples — Adult Edition of 100,000 Whys
An Unforgettable Night in Bed — Notes on My Affair with This Sales Manager
An Unforgettable Night — Getting Stood Up, Then Approaching Someone Instead
Things You Don't Know
The Ultimate Pickup Guide
The Revelation
An AFC Surrenders — Strong Women, PUA Is Here for You!
An 8-out-of-10 I Approached a While Back — Closed the Deal Tonight
A Perfect Kiss-Close a Few Days Ago, Then Closed Last Night
The Great Routine Library
Playful Comebacks
Qin Fen and Shu Qi
Romantic Memories: Approaching a Virgin, Eventually Closing and Taking Her Virginity
Romantic Memories: Online Dating — Closed on the First Meeting
Thank God I'm a Man — An Uncensored Leaked Chat Log with Se Lang (Mengmeng)
The Persuasive Talk Nobody Can Say No To
One Approach a Day, Advanced Class — Text Message Strategy (Something Truly Anyone Can Do)
One Approach a Day 2 — Silverwing the Magician: 8 Girls, Three Phone Numbers
How to Avoid Going From "Everything's Perfect" to "A Complete Mess" [Advanced]
Three Dates, Closed With a Beautiful Virgin — But I Ended Up the One Left Confused!
Field Report
Field Report 2
Using Cold Reading to Open a Girl's Heart and Stir Her Emotions — Silverwing the Magician's Personal Case Analysis (Five Stars, Highly Recommended)
The Most Charming Talker in the World
Lock On to Your Target, Then Close the Deal
Closing a "Eat, Drink, and Ditch" Girl, and the Counter-Theory for It, with Full Details and Photos
The Wicked Sex Frame
For Her, I Spent a Whole Week (an 8-out-of-10 Young Divorcée) (by Zhengtian, from The Game, China's first pickup community)
My Last Relationship — Getting Hurt, Preparing to Marry, Then Breaking Up
I Dreamed You Owed Me 100 Bucks and Never Paid Me Back, Several Times Now, Didn't You? (A Bit of a Reverse-Neg Here, Playfully Putting Her Down With Humor)
Wandering Around Bored, Approached an Interior Designer — Won Her Over the Next Day
Five Jokes That Explain the True Nature of Men and Women
Xi Da Jie: Closing a Friend-Referred 9-out-of-10 Beauty with Sasha
Detailed Breakdown of a Particular Experience
The Art of Reading Faces and Minds
Being as Funny as Li Ao
Going for a 9 — Continuing to Approach a Current 9-out-of-10 Girl
Xiaofeifei Takes On Dafeifei's Team, One by One (Reposted)
A Little Management
Mind Games
Inner Demons
Learning How to Safely "Get to Bed" (A High-Level Guide on the Two Key Points of "Getting Wet" and "Wingmen")
The Secret to Training a Magnetic Voice
A Successful Close — Sharing the Experience and Approach with Fellow Players
A Beautiful Morning — Notes on Closing With a Sales-Rep, Petite-and-Mature Type, Last Night
[Weekly Star Post] A Successful Approach and Analysis of a White-Collar Girl in Pudong While on a Business Trip to Shanghai (by Selang)
[Weekly Star Post] Follow-Up with a Dancer, and a Civil Aviation University Student (by Zhengtian, from The Game, China's first pickup community)
Silverwing Analyzes Text Messages
The Secret to Training a Magnetic Voice
The Humor Master Lin Yutang
From a 13-Year-Old's Pickup Post to Somewhere Else Entirely — From Peach Garden to the Pickup Studies Library
Guerrilla Warfare: Picking Off a Group One by One
Youwei, from Beef Noodle Guy to PUA! (by Youwei, from The Game, China's first pickup community)
Youwei's Work: A 9, Still a 9! With Analysis!
Youwei on Humor (10): How to Tell a Story, Hand-Typed Version (from the Game group)
Once Again, the Elf's Hand — A Hand-Held, Case-by-Case Account of Pickup (Updated March 26)
Yet Another Perfect Kiss-Close
With a 10-out-of-10, Age 18
Flirting With and Closing Another Woman's Companion in Front of My Wife
A Jiangnan Beauty in Shanghai (an FR from My China Trip)
Old College Memories — Closed on the First Date
Philosophical Thoughts
I've Been on a Total Pickup Streak Lately
The Weather's Been Great Lately, So Here's Another College Memory of Closing With a Junior Girl
A Story as Beautiful and Fleeting as a Shooting Star — Dedicated to That Foreign-Company Girl
Truth or Dare
Body Language Notes
Nothing But Hooking Up — Been Single for Ages
China Pickup Studies Journal 1.0 Beta
Mid-Autumn Festival Romantic Memories — Closing a French-Chinese Returnee Girl
Getting Back into Approaching, Part 1 [Cold Reading]
200+ Reading Notes on Pickup Ebooks | M-x Chris-An-Emacser (chriszheng.science)
