Neil chases stories and ideas that are both a little crazy and secretly appealing to most men. Let's face it, all of us guys have wished at some point or other that they could seduce any women they wanted. In the same way, a lot of us have probably wondered what it would be like to live a spy lifestyle, or to have bank accounts in exclusive foreign countries. This is basically just the equivalent of a harlequin novel, but for guys.

I found it eye-opening in a lot of ways, and it brings a host of new questions: what is "genuine" social interaction? How much of people's personality is learned and internalized behavior? How much of sexual attraction is? Should you try to change your personality for something that is supposedly better, and can it be done? In relation to dominance/submission in social situation (the implicit structure of command and leadership that automatically arises when a group of people meets), how much is genuine (or "natural" - what does "natural" even mean?) and to what degrees do natural leaders actively manipulate the people around them?

You shouldn't read books just for some supposed literary value, the real value comes from the questions you have when you're done.

Similar to the old koan about how many businesses a successful entrepreneur most fail at before they succeed, I think after hundreds of encounters - you start to gain the benefits of experience. I've met and talked to a couple of these pick up artists - and they've pretty much told me they can analyze an interaction in real-time at a meta-level and know what they can do (or more likely, what their client should be doing).

There is one downside to all of the pickup techniques - it emphasizes that there is a method to the madness (and encourages subscription-based revenue - e.g. get the latest book/podcast etc.) - while from what I've observed, successful pick up artists could basically walk up to any woman (if they wanted) and say "I like peanut butter." and go from there.

Aside from "canned acts/memorized responses" they also rely on something called Neurolinguistic programming, which is basically a way of phrasing questions to get a desired answer. Rather than ask "What don't you like about me?", they might ask something along the lines of "What about me intimidates you?" NLP allows the other person think they decided to sleep with you, not the other way around.

If you saw Magnolia (by Paul Thomas Anderson) then you'd recognize that Tom Cruise's character is loosely based off Ross Jefferies, the creator of "Speed Seduction", which was the first pick-up-routine to be based off NLP.

My take on Strauss is that he's a prep school kid trying to play Hunter S. Thompson. His writing is good. His topics are slightly edgy but still pretty safe. They're also the things nerds fantasize about... being a casanova or rock star or james bond or hanging out with porn stars.

+1 for nailing it. He's not nearly as insufferable as Tim Ferriss, but it certainly seems like he's in the same zip code sometimes.

The story though is entertaining.

I'm not supporting the concept, but it's got an allure. To learn to be a Casanova, could - according to these people he talks about, and in a sense, him - be within the grasp of any guy. It's learning how to be more attractive without having to get in shape (though getting in shape is a major boost.)

It's probably not a book for everyone, but if you read it for entertainment and not knowledge, you'll enjoy it I think.

The only one I didn't care for was the Marilyn Manson one. It may have just been my distaste for the subject, but I felt like the whole thing came off as too whiny (not to mention boring) which is at least partially Neil's fault for not controlling the tone better.