Dating? Here's some advice on handling the rocky road of relationships from "How to Survive Dating" (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $12.95), straight from people who've done it:

“If he lets you drive but tells you when to shift, just pull over to the side and let him out.”

“The first time I met my ex-boyfriend’s mother, she deliberately pointed out the ‘M’ on my ex’s University of Michigan baseball cap, a hat he always wore, and told me that the ‘M’ stood for mother and that she will always be the No. 1 woman in his life. She told me this in front of his entire family during the first week we were dating. I knew then that the relationship was going to be a challenge.”

—N.L., New York, New York

“One time I was in a bar and I asked this guy out for the next day. The next day we met and we walked around and met some of his friends and sat down to have ice cream. I asked him these questions and all of a sudden he put down his spoon and said, ‘You think I’m a guy, don’t you?’ ven gay guys get it wrong sometimes. I learned to always make sure of the gender before investing the money in ice cream.”

—Patrick Clifton, San Antonio, Texas

“I went on a first date with someone who showed up a half-hour late, covered in dirt, limping, and hung over. He ran into me at the place we were supposed to meet. He had been hurrying home to change; he thought he still had an hour until our date. But then he saw me and realized. I said, ‘So, what happened?’ And he told me this story about how he was drunk the night before and fell down and sprained his ankle. That was pretty much how the date went. I called my friends and had them come get me out of it. It was odd.”

“Any man emerging from a serious relationship, no matter how stable he seems to be, definitely merits a giant caution flag. There was a guy I was interested in for a long time, but he was in a serious relationship with a girlfriend. One day he said he and his girlfriend had broken up and he asked me out. My friends cautioned me, but we went out on a date. We dated for a while. Things went well but I could tell he had reservations at times. Though he denied it, I felt he still had feelings for his ex. We had a long, serious conversation and he assured me everything with his ex-girlfriend was behind him. He convinced me. I think he may have even convinced himself; But when the time came for our relationship to move into more intimate circumstances, he shied away. One night I came over to hang out with him and watch television and he sat on the far end of the couch, nowhere near me. Eventually we drifted apart because he couldn’t commit to me. He just was not ready. The sad part is, if we had waited a while I think we may have been able to date, but we acted much too quickly.”

—Amanda K., Berkeley, Calif.