The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment - A.J. Jacobs, 2009

Jacobs' books are catnip for me, and Guinea Pig Diaries is the funniest yet - a cross between Malcolm Gladwell and Dave Barry. Instead of focusing on a year-long project, as The Know-it-All and The Year of Living Biblically did, this one collects nine shorter stunts. Some (outsourcing all his activities) are inherently more promising than others (posing for a nude photo), but AJ milks them all for maximum laughs, interspersed with personal insights. But what completely blew my mind was discovering that his outsourcing experience, which first appeared as an article in Esquire (9/05), is what inspired legendary asshole Tim Ferris to write The 4-Hour Workweek, whose siren song (not unlike Amway) drew millions of gullible buyers. (It's "been sold into 35 languages!") You can't blame Jacobs, whose humane and fundamentally sensible outlook underpins everything he writes. Don't miss the priceless book trailer.