"The College Girl's Guide to Everything" is sorta, kinda ... forgettable

This is the 1st edition of Garton's treatise

As the higher education reporter, a lot of interesting free books cross my desk.

A couple of years ago I was blessed with the compellingly titled, "Boink: College Sex By the People Having It," by the editors of the now-defunct Boink Magazine. A year or so later, I received something called "Women's Anatomy of Arousal" by Sheri Winston (voted the American Society of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists BOOK OF THE YEAR.) I've also received "How to Make Colleges Want You," "Get Into College," "How to Survive the SAT and ACT," "How to Survive Your Freshman Year," and "How to Survive Getting Your Kid Into College."

At to that prestigious list this title that arrived Thursday: "U Chic: The College Girl's Guide to Everything." It comes to us from the fine folks over at U Chic.

I paged through it a little bit and I have to say, it's ... well ... I wouldn't exactly make it required reading. For example, it takes until well  over 100 pages before you get to any advice that's specific to women. Most of it reads like a garden variety how-to-handle-your-first-year-at-college book, and I can tell you there are plenty of those on the market.

Here's a passage from chapter 5, page 142, regarding talking on the phone to your boyfriend: "If you want to chat it up with that new boy in your life or have a quality phone date with your current BF, make sure you are somewhere quiet, free of giggling girls chugging wine and/or discussing the latest celeb gossip. Devote your concentration to your conversation and really listen to what your beau is saying. You'll be surprised how much you enjoy talking with your sweetie when you give him your full attention."

So, like I said, hardly groundbreaking stuff. But, I will say this about author Christie Garton's book: Content and target audience have been masterfully leveraged on the cover. Pink and black (remind you of a certain lingerie store?) with a nod toward the collegiate (the big U is reminiscent of any other college-looking font) and the word "chic" over the U in a very feminine, slightly Sex In the City-esque vibe.

Also, another plus for this book, it's as good as any other survival guide I've seen, so if someone from the target audience who wouldn't normally grab a how-to actually grabs this one, then I guess that's a good thing.

For the record, the book that came across my desk is a preview of the updated 2nd edition, due out in April.