The Spy's Guide: Office Espionage: How to Bug a Meeting, Bobby-Trap Your Briefcase, Infiltrate the Competition & More (Paperback)

There are some books that are created for little more than pleasure. I don't think these books serve a lesser purpose. I think that grocery store romance novels provide entertainment and possible delight to their readers. Someone I know once purchased a connect-the-dots book of pornography to give as a birthday gift. That book possibly offered hours of entertainment. Every time I graduate, someone gives me an inspirational book of quotes. Sure, some of them are good, but after a quick read through, what am I supposed to do with it? Tape the quotes to my bathroom mirror? Um, no.

The Spy's Guide to Office Espionage by H. Keith Melton and Craig Piligian with Duane Sweirczynski offers little more than brief entertainment. (I suppose for people who are truly set on bugging their co-workers, it also acts as a convenient How To guide.) In The Spy's Guide, readers learn how to booby-trap their briefcase (because so many of us use those anymore...), monitor co-worker's hours, read a competitor's laptop and communicate with invisible inks. Good stuff, right?

My main issue with The Spy's Guide is that I got better advice watching reruns of Get Smart on Nick at Nite. Most of the tips given by the authors, retired CIA and KGB spies, are good only if you are seriously neurotic about the behavior of your co-workers or professional competitors, or have the extra time to spend following them around, sending anonymous emails and protecting your trash.

What makes The Spy's Guide an entertaining read though are the real life stories by the retired spies where they account instances of using the tips they impart in this book. Fortunately, these "Spies at Work" segments occur with regular frequency. (By the end of the book, these were the only sections I read, because frankly, I ain't looking through anyone's trash. And for people who want to look through mine? Have fun.)

One funny tip I enjoyed was going to a meeting where some negotiating will take place. Before entering, call yourself on one cell phone and when you answer, leave both phones on. Mid-way through negotiations, go to the bathroom, accidentally leaving one phone on the table with your notebook. While in the bathroom, listen on the other phone to what is occurring in the meeting in your absence. This could help you throw out the right salary, offer, etc.

Another fun tip was to conceal things in water bottles. The hidden object would be surrounded by water and a the bottled water's label. What makes this funny is that housewives have been doing this for years - hiding mad money in jars of beans with a cavity in the middle. Heck, in seventh and eighth grade my friends and I used to pass notes to each other concealed in pens, instead of having in k in the pen. What teacher could fault you for borrowing a pen when you ink ran out?

Is The Spy's Guide to Office Espionage worth your time to read? Probably not. Is it a funny gift to give to someone else? Definitely. It's best use though is to have it lying around the office. I told my boss what I was reviewing and you should have seen the look on his face!

This is a light, fun book that is a quick and easy read. I bought as a gift for someone who loved James Bond-type stuff. He loved the book, and it was passed around the party and we all had a good giggle.

There are a few creepy things in the book (like learning about how you can figure out someone's computer password), and it will likely make you a little more paranoid than you were before.

Just don't buy this expecting to come away with super-spy type powers. It is more of a good stocking-stuffer/birthday type gift.