The Game

Investigative reporter Neil Strauss chronicles the two years he spent inside the seduction community, a network of men who trade techniques for picking up women. After stumbling on the subculture while working on an article, he joins its online forums, attends a bootcamp run by a mentor known as Mystery and gradually remakes himself as Style, a celebrated pickup artist. He later lives at Project Hollywood, a mansion shared with other members, and records the rivalries that pull it apart. Encounters with celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Courtney Love run through an account written mainly as autobiography. Published in 2005, it spent two months on the New York Times best seller list.

Ryan Holiday put it in his 24 Books To Hone Your Strategic Mind, arguing that pickup artists, though mostly tactical, excel at spotting openings and building plans their targets often fail to notice.