The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Neil Strauss
 Strauss stumbles across the community while working on an article. Intrigued by the subculture, he starts participating in the online discussion groups, mainly out of his own frustration with his romantic life. As he becomes more and more involved in the romantic community, Strauss attends a "Bootcamp" conducted by Mystery. The bootcamp consists of Strauss and other participants approaching women and then Mystery and his counterpart Sin giving them corrective advice on their behaviors, body language, and what to say; Strauss learns habits that, as he sees it, are often basic – and should have been taught to him by society in the first place. The book then narrates the journey of how Strauss goes through the various stages of becoming a Pickup artist, description about the various members of the community and how Strauss befriends many of the members, particularly Mystery. A good deal of the book focuses on how to obtain the elusive upper hand, or just hand, in a relationship. Strauss advocates various methods – mostly from the point of view of heterosexual men. Strauss generally recommends a "cocky and funny" attitude. He offers further guidelines for the process of seduction, which include: prepare things to say before going out, tell groups with girls surreptitiously impressive stories but also "false time constraints" (a reason that the conversation could end very soon), put the girl of interest in a situation where she must convince the man she is interesting, very slowly increase the amount of physical contact, and more. Strauss tells the story of: his success; the spreading of the romantic community itself and his life at "Project Hollywood", a high end mansion and a lifestyle plan shared by Strauss, Mystery, Playboy, Papa, Tyler Durden, Herbal, and other members of the seduction community; and how rivalries and animosity between various members of the community lead to "Project Hollywood's" collapse. The book also documents the start of Real Social Dynamics with Tyler Durden and Papa. By the end of his story, Strauss concludes that a life of nothing but picking up girls is "for losers", and he advocates incorporating Pick Up Artist habits into a more balanced life. Strauss mentions his experiments with sleeping habits, personal grooming and his meetings with celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Courtney Love and Britney Spears.