Gosling starts off his book with a great anecdote about receiving a "mystery box" full of contents from someone's bathroom to examine. He does so and deduces a lot, correctly, about the owner of the items. That was cool.
Too bad that the bulk of this book was either obvious (people who put candy on their desks or have open doors and comfy seating are inviting others to stop by and spend time with them; they're probably extroverts! those who close their office doors want to be left alone; they're possibly introverts!) or not in keeping with the title's hook. I was interested in some of the studies, like the accelerated question/answer period that turns people into fast friends or the one that suggested that whites take special care not to admit noticing race whenever possible...but will drop the act if cash is offered -- but how is that about stuff and snooping?
This is basically a jumble of interesting factoids and studies about personalities and their manifestations -- but it's not a cohesive book. Shoehorning a phrase like "as an experienced snooper" into the narrative dozens of times doesn't mean that there's much snooping really going on.
C-
Non-fiction #6
