Feeding my manic, experimental, information junkie soul

As a journeyman foodie, fan of all things delicious and all around information sponge I was intrigued when the 4 Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Tim Ferriss came across my desk. Learn anything, Mr Ferriss? Challenge accepted. There is a lot of information in this book on everything from cooking an amazing date steak to learning a new language in a matter of weeks.

The 4 Hour Chef is less of a cookbook and more of a look into Tim Ferriss' manic interest in all things learning, a sentiment that I greatly appreciate. He touches on making everything from homemade sauerkraut ( have my first batch going right now) to turning a metal garbage can into a cooking pit for a clam bake, to learning how to memorize a deck of cards. So, if you are a little weird like me (okay, maybe a lotta weird) and are the kind of person who tends to find yourself saying "I have no idea what I'm doing, but that's not going to stop me from trying" then I highly recommend you pick up this book and give it a whirl.

I was so charmed by Mr. Ferriss' inquisitive nature that I ordered another book of his, The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman as, like many people, one of my New Year's resolutions was to get in better shape. My husband and I agreed to do a little experiment on ourselves in true Ferriss style and are trying what it recommends for a month to see what happens. It's still too early to tell and I'm skeptical of many of his claims, but the read is interesting in and of itself and, like the 4-Hour Chef, there is a TON of information in this book about all sorts of random things and it's interesting to see the kind of experimentation Mr. Ferriss comes up with to put his body through. I will put in a caveat that this book is much less polished than the 4-Hour Chef and can be quite disjointed, but Ferriss' enthusiasm and the intriguing nature of the information contained was enough to keep me going.

All in all, I have become a fan of Tim Ferriss and recommend his books and blogs to those adventurous souls who approach the world with an "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to try it anyway" attitude.