Customer Reviews

The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book isn't really about teaching you techniques but rather explaining Mystery's lifestyle and expensive tastes (living in a Miami posh $25,000/month home) and he basically brags throughout the whole book about all the cars he has, all his exploits, and how he thinks he is awesome.

He may very well be very awesome, and I'm sure he's a cool guy to be around, but this book is way too watered down, probably contains about 10 pages or so of useful information, and the rest describing Mystery's lavish lifestyle.

I give this book one star because I was looking for a book that would be instructional kind of like his last book, "The Mystery Method" which I found highly informative BUT very difficult to implement. It was just simply way too complicate (but worth the time to digest and memorize/understand).

Maybe this book tries to address the complexity of his last book, but instead it comes out as a dud as it doesn't teach enough.

In a sense, this book is kind of like "The Game" which you'll hear every guy who's read it ask you surreptitiously, "So... have you read the game?" The problem is that that book talked a lot about Neil's exploits too but lacked a lot on instruction. So why do I mention this? Because this book is basically that too.

Also, it seems that these books carry a lot of hype, and I noticed that "pickup artist" books/DVDs/etc. have a high amount of competition and each party arguing that they are correct/better and the other one is not. It is juvenile.

They have a lot of "wow" factor, but little in practical/"easy keep it simple and straightforward" advice and much of it you already probably know such as A) Be smiling B) Be confident C) Be Relaxed D) Create a Personal Connection. And other common sense things like dress well, groom yourself well, EXERCISE, eat well, go out often rather than staying addicted to the computer playing video games, being a loner, etc.

I'm coming to the conclusion that basically pickup isn't that difficult.

Basically, the whole ideology is to

A) When you see a girl that you like, you don't indicate interest in her (at least not right away), you treat her as a guy friend. That way she doesn't think that you're hitting on her, and when you're a girl who is hit on everyday you would definitely get tired of "How are you?s" and "You are so pretty." This is good advice.
B) If she's really attractive or has a high ego because of her beauty, you bring her down a little bit by indirectly commenting on her. For instance, if you say, "Nice necklace, it reminds me of the one my 80 year old Grandma wears!" --- you're giving a compliment but you're always subconsciously making her feel bad because you're comparing her tastes with an 80 year old Grandmas lol.
C) Once she starts getting interested in you, and starts seeing that you are different and that you are NOT sexually interested in her at first (even though you think she is gorgeous), you can talk with her, show your personality, escalate kino (that means subtle touching ex) on the shoulder, or grabbing her hand, hugging, etc) to develop comfort, etc.. The whole point though ISN'T to never display sexuality but rather don't appear attracted to her at first so as to make her think that she's not anything special. Once she sees you as someone who is better than the rest of the guys, then she should hopefully should vie for your attention.

Overall, "pickup" isn't mainly about scripted lines, scripted openers, etc., it's about IDEOLOGY and being aligned with that ideology. I think that pickup is more of an attitude more than anything else and this is basically what Mystery is saying.

So in any case, would I recommend this book? Definitely not. It's way too watered down and lacking in content but rather focuses too much about a successful and popular man boasting about his accomplishments. It's really annoying.

Some other things to note:

1) I would recommend his other book, "The Mystery Method" as that is pretty good and covers EVERYTHING that is in this book and more, but I would take the time to study it and take notes/memorize/understand that book. To get a better idea of that book you definitely to read it 2-3x and probably more to keep it fresh.
2) Ignore all the 5-star hype reviews that may be affiliated with the author or are probably just b.s. . If you notice on the day the book came out, there were a lot of suspicious 5 star reviews --- which makes you think how can someone review a book so soon when A) they probably didn't even read it yet and B) they didn't have a chance to use it enough.
3) Sell your computer (i'm in the process of selling mine), delete your video games, terminate your internet subscription, and cancel TV. If you want to get girls, your main problem is going out enough. Pickup is a game about numbers, which is something that Mystery is correct about --- the more girls that you encounter and interact with the better your odds are. If you need internet, use it at a friend's house, or probably more practically at your local library.
4) Stop killing kittens by looking at porn videos. Having a high sex drive will make you want to go out and get girls.
5) Workout, eat well, and dress well too. A good body will always turn heads. Being fat won't. This is truth.
6) KEEP PICKUP THEORY AND KNOWLEDGE SIMPLE AND DON'T OVERCOMPLICATE IT. One of the biggest problems with PICKUP THEORY is that if you are one who loves to absorb knowledge, you might want to read everything, watch everything, etc. But remember folks, this isn't a SCIENCE, this is an art --- it may or may not work on you --- and delivery is much more important than anything else. So the point I am making is that, once you've reached a comfortable level of theory, stop being obsessed with reading so much and just go out and practice. And sure you can learn how to bike without having biked before, or learning how to workout without having done it before, but no progress will EVER happen if you never go out and apply what you learned. And for many of you, the beginning will be the biggest hill to conquer, so never give up and work hard and continually refine yourself --- and be aware, you will fail multiple times, but that is okay, for each time you fail, you will learn a new valuable lesson and you will become a little more socially calibrated.

If I ever see Mystery walking alone in a dark alley I'm going give him a big man-hug. I don't even mind that he's probably over a foot taller than me in his platforms and top-hat so it would be an awkward hug given my head placement. When I accidentally (I was cruising the self-help section looking for vulnerable girls) came across The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists I had no idea what was in store for me the next few years. I've had the absolute time of my life finding myself into situations that even Tucker Max would find surreal and I owe it all to Mystery and Neil Strauss. The past 3 years of my life have been MTV Reality TV worthy with regrets too few to mention.

I felt that I had to give a verbal blowie here because this review is going to hurt me worse than it will hurt Mystery :) I had such such high hopes for this book. The Game was a phenomenal narrative story that I consider one of thee most important books I have ever read, however, The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed was the book that put it all into place for me. Strauss opened my eyes and showed me it could be done, Mystery flat out told me how to do it in his 2007 book. Naturally when I had seen Mystery had a "New and Improved" (notice the snarky quotes) Mystery Method out my eyes I instantly loaded it up on my iPhone Kindle App.

If by "new and improved" ("laser") you mean the exact opposite, then yes. This book is very new and improved. But seriously, folks, this book is a bunch of old concepts and new nonsense wrapped up in over compensating and second hand embarrassing tripe. Mystery clearly used this book as a platform to bag on his detractors, haters and what-not in addition to establishing himself as the end all say all of pick up. I already like you, buddy. That's why I bought the book. I decided to make a drinking game: Every time he literally blurts out "I'm Mystery" you do a shot. I spent the first 3 chapters in the hospital and the next 6 in celebrity rehab with that dude from Grease.

Since most of Mystery's actual findings and PRACTICAL (notice the snarky caps-lock, more on that later) applications of seduction are worth hearing I knew I had to trudge on through the overcompensating DLV of a book to get to the diamonds. Not that I'm complaining; almost all books (sans Gladwell) are mostly filler material. This book was extra hard to finish, man-crush on Mystery aside. I did find my nuggets of pure gold, however, they are scarce and well buried with Mystery's self gratification.

Even without the written masturbation I had to cringe because it appeared that Mystery has abandoned his more scientific side of experimentation, observation, and evidence based empirical evidence and downgraded into more of "the secret" type nonsense.

Mystery is still the king of pickup and not because he told me so (once every other page). This book was either a well intended Mystery Method told in a really bad narrative or a rushed out sequel to get a product out at the peak of it's popularity. Either way I can only recommend this book just to see by chance there is something you don't already know after reading The Game, The Mystery Method or seen on the show. How Strauss let his friend put out this book is beyond me. Friends don't let friends...

Very disappointed to read this hyped up book, which has nothing new to offer. It is all about the author's self publicity, and what he thinks will work for everyone else. Most of the advice is the same stuff from his previous books, so I am wondering why it's called new and improved. If you have read his previous books then you really have no need to read this one. Save your money and read something, which makes a real difference to your own self-development. You are not Mystery and neither do you have the money and glamour which Mystery does. This book will not give you any information that you already do not know. I regret buying this book and wasting my money.

I enjoyed Mystery's first book and was really looking forward to this one. He didn't invent pickup, but us arguably the its biggest innovator. As is mentioned in the book, the majority of the top PUAs were once his students.

I was not disappointed. Read it in a day, but this is the kind of book I'm going to refer to again and again for a while. There is too much here to really absorb at once.

The writing is better than the last one, which makes it flow a lot easier. Didn't take me long to get through it. The style is very similar to the Bible (yes, THE Bible) in that the lessons are taught via stories. The story is that of a group of pickup artists renting a two million dollar mansion in Miami and living it up. Entertaining, even if you're not into pickup.

Mystery's "Method" is four steps:

1. find
2. meet
3. attract
4. close

This book builds on the first one with ways to do all the the above. It also improves on the first one with a better, more organized outline and "just the meat" lists and techniques to follow.

Things like his "Top 10 List" are worth the price of the by book themselves. This is the type of book you'll want to review before going out. I plan to work through it by taking one section (or list) at a time, hitting the club, and really focusing on it. Doing this, you've literally got a year or more of material to work on. It's that packed.

There are lots of lessons here, all broken down into easy-to-follow steps. Lots of lists, lots of very specific info with "if she does this, you should do this" type of detail.

Those new to pickup will find the glossary helpful, since Mystery coins terms for his different techniques, which you may not know.

Other things I liked about this book:

- Lots of new gambits/scripts to use. Also some variations on gambits/approaches/openers you already know, which will help you keep things fresh, now that everybody has seen Mystery's VH1 show and is asking, "What movie is this from?!!" Thank god for this, since that stuff is killing pickup. Use this book to help you come up with something original. Lots of good ides here.

- Lots of exercises. As I already mentioned, you can use this entire book as a worksheet for going out and practicing, but if you're not that creative, have no fear because Mystery includes some very specific exercises you can use.

- Lots of guidelines, checklists, and "steps" to follow. Yes, there really is a "7 Habits of Highly Effective Pickup Artists" list. haha!

- A good list of negs.

If you're going to go out and put this stuff into action, you will love this book. He really breaks it down and it's much easier to understand than his previous book. There is a one-year followup of one of his students up lived with him in Miami, so that will help keep you motivated.

If you're not going to put it into action or have no interest in going to clubs/bars, your results may vary.

Excited to see what happens in the next few months of working with this material!

As long as you're willing to do a bit of work, I think this book would work well for beginners, but know it's not a magic formula and there is more to it than just pick up lines. If you really want to be successful at this, you'll also need to do some internal "mindset" work to rid yourself of the programming we all pickup from parents, religion, and society. For the mindset stuff, I recommend getting your hands on anything by David Deida and a for a female opinion on what females really want, Just F Me by Eve Kingsley.

Good luck!!

I personally am a fan of Neil Stauss and Mystery (he is a bit of a genius when it comes to women), but not this book. It is clear that Mystery wrote it and Neil at most wrote a few pages (probably just the intro). Reading this book is like listening to Mystery "DHV" (demonstrate higher value).... endlessly.. and poorly. There might be one semi-useful piece of advice in this book, but I could not find it. If you want a good book on how to meet girls, read anything written solely by Neil Strauss. For example, you cannot go wrong with his book "The Game".

Reading this book made me want to drill a hole in my head, I cannot exemplify just how terribly written this book was and to exacerbate the situation there is *almost* no useful knowledge in here (certainly nothing you could not find in a better book, or online). DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF TRASH. Oh, if only I believed in burning books.

Mystery truly is a brilliant study of social dynamics and we certainly have his word on this issue in this book. Most of us know the benefit of confidence in attracting anyone, much less the pua buying public, and the level of confidence ladled out here is off the scale. A little over the top for my taste, as though Mystery was selling himself rather than his abilities to successfully instruct (which I believe he illustrates well in his 1st book). "Styles" contribution was ridiculous.

I should start off by saying that I am a fan of Mystery's and feel that much of mankind owes him a debt of gratitude for teaching hundreds of men how to be better with women. Had Mystery not trained Neil Strauss to become an mPUA (who later went on to write "The Game"), most of us would never have known about the Seduction community and we'd still be lonely Average Frustrated Chumps doing one-handed web surfing rather than getting out in the world.

Credit being given where credit is due, this book is terrible! I have read most of the PUA books including Mystery's previous book, The Mystery Method, and this is by far the worst. Where Mystery Method breaks everything down into a scientific formula that you can follow step-by-step (A1, A2, A3, C1, etc.), The Pickup Artist jumbles all of the lessons into random tidbits where Mystery is preaching to his new student, Adam. There is no structure to this book. Adam always asks the wrong question which Mystery then corrects him about the right way to do it. Mystery also writes the stories so that he is never wrong like when all the PUAs are in the strip club and LoveDrop is wondering what he should do with the stripper he is hitting on. Biff, the "obnoxious, loud oaf" (mystery's words not fact), advises LD to handle it one way while Mystery advises something else. LD tries Biff's way and low-and-behold fails.

Mystery spends most of the book bragging about how awesome he is and while self-confidence is important to getting girls, anyone who has read "The Game" will recognize that all Mystery's bragging is to satisfy his own insecurities and ego. For anyone who does not know, pickup artist bootcamps usually run in the $3,000 range to attend (I've never been to one). I've often wondered how a 3-day course for group training (not even one-on-one) could be justified for this cost. It is obvious from the way Mystery describes his lifestyle that most of the $3K+ is not "the cost of doing business" but just a number that they discovered an "average guy" will pay to learn from them. It makes me a little sick to think of an unlucky-in-love guy saving his hard-earned pennies for months or years just to go to a bootcamp and then read that Mystery and his stooges blow through that money in a day.

Enough ranting, apologies. So, in short, don't buy "The Pickup Artist". Buy "The Game" by Neil Strauss for a great story, then buy "The Mystery Method" by Mystery to learn how Neil did the stuff he did, then consider some of David DeAngelo's DVDs (from ebay, much cheaper). I slam Mystery a bit in this review but he really did put in the hard work to create most of the community and his words and methodology do work...just don't try to learn it from this book. :D

I remember that Mystery's first book The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed, was the first real book I read about the PUA community and basically the "art of seduction." Even though the name could be much less cheesy-sounding, a took a chance because I was at a point where I kept losing interesting from girls that would even approach me sometimes, so I didn't know where else to turn until I stumbled onto Mystery's first book when the whole "PUA" scene was just starting to become exposed. It blew my mind and started practicing "out in the field" with girls I knew and would meet and for the main part, the first book served as a good general guideline to meeting women that you want and successfully getting them interested in you, and then taking it from there. As the book says, you can learn all the stuff there is in the book, but in order to understand how to work as well as getting good at game, you have to go out there and do it. All the good PUAs out there right now got good because they weren't afraid to fail, and I had to stomach my pride before I started getting consistent results, but I wouldn't change a thing now because it's such an awesome feeling choosing which girl you want to meet.

I got the second book with so much excitement and expectation because I feel like his first book improved my game and social life so much. Man, was I disappointed! He opens up the book talking about his entourage and his super-mansion and basically any other material things he can mention in order to show off that he "made it." It was badly written and boring to boot at well. Then, finally he starts mentioning a student who comes for a private one-on-one instruction (but not before putting in a shameless commercial plug for his services), and then starts to just touch upon the things that made his first book so great. When he finally starts talking about "the Mystery Method" and the guidelines to seduce a girl, it's very badly worded and scattered all over the book, making it very hard to understand. It's thrown in between how much stuff he owns and what women he banged last week, making his teachings seem cheap and disparaging. What you can piece together are basically regurgitations of his first book, aside from some different names and updates, but basically nothing new. After a few chapters, it's pretty clear as the same style of writing is prevalent throughout the whole book, he's officially now a sellout. It's unfortunate because I got good at game because of him. Now, he seems like just another guy that let fame get to him. If you're gonna read one of his books, read the first one. However, there are WAY much better guides to picking up girls nowadays and without so much fluff. If you really want to learn advanced game, try Magic Bullets: 2nd Edition. That explain things so much better, and is worth the money in my opinion. They tell you of past success through experience without showing off, so you get more of a feeling of how it works and how you need to "calibrate" your game since there's no "one size fits all" method for all women, which is something I think most pick-up artists fail to mention (and something I found out through experience).

I've already read a few books around dating and women, so I'm pretty open to learning from each new book I come across... this book was no exception.

Mystery is a fascinating guy and has definitely lived a fascinating life! Did this book change my life? Not yet.

Does it have some pretty decent insights, interesting stories, and underlying psychology worth noting? Absolutely.

Buy the book because you're looking for entertainment and fun, not because you're hoping to learn deep insights about yourself. Mystery seems to be a master of outer game material... I wish he did a little more work on inner game materials.

With the exception of the chapter in the beginning that talks about touch "kino", the first half of the book is a bunch of fluff. Stories about his crazy life style, the mansion they rented in Miami, etc.
It's not until just before the chapter titled, "The Elvis Script," that its start to pick up the pace. Mystery also focuses on working your game in the clubs, which he has honed and perfected, however, I would have liked to see him go a little more in depth on day game. To be fair, some of the material can be used in day game.
A pleasant surprise is in the end he tells you about a website that is supplemental to the book. It contains videos where he covers the same material with some demos.
Overall the book is not bad, but it does leave something to be desired, which is somewhat fulfilled with the extra content on the website.