Garth Sundem doesn't need any introduction, he is the author of Geek Logik, The Geek's Guide to World Domination and a number of other books, and is also a columnist here at Science 2.0 since the network began in 2006. His magic works because he knows something everyone claims to know; if you fool people into having fun, they can get smarter faster and improve their actual brains as well. You can't escape it. By writing a fun book that got me to review it, and which got you to read even this review, he has manipulated your hippocampus and mine into being better than it was 2 minutes ago. Imagine if you read the whole book.
Garth can make anything fun. Here he is in a promotional clip from his Science Channel show showing geeks how they can get better at meeting girls by using math:
He even made a custom Geek Logik equation for how many homeruns my son would hit in high school even though I couldn't hit a curveball. That means a lot of pressure for me doing a review, right? Random House sent me the book but it's his baby - what if it was terrible? You can't overcome insulting someone's years of toil.
Luckily, it turned out to not only not be terrible, saving me hemming and hawing about not having time to review it, but actually pretty great. So great you won't know he has basically tricked you into doing 100 homework problems - and paying for the privilege. And liking it.
Garth is doing what we might call Applied Neuroplasticity. Go ahead, steal that term, I don't mind. Plasticity research is a field dedicated to understanding how the noticeable changes in the brain impact undiscovered areas that are still a mystery. My mother is a brilliant woman who has consistently trounced me at that word definition thing in Reader's Digest despite my having a swell degree obtained on a full scholarship. How is that possible? She is always improving her brain, that's how, while I play "Civilization 4" and watch reruns of "Secret Girlfriend."
"Brain Candy" isn't all homework problems, that's why I say 100. Interspersed among a few hundred choice bits are also interesting factoids to ponder and you might even find a clever little animation but they are all related to the brain.
You see? He makes your brain better by cleverly writing a fun book about the brain that makes you smarter. How meta!
And he leaves no cultural stone unturned in his quest to find good stuff. Joe DiMaggio was a neuoscience expert? Yes, if you didn't already hate him for having the best batting eye in the history of baseball and marrying Marilyn Monroe, now you can hate Joltin' Joe for being a brain wiz too, right on page 102.
"Brain Candy" did stump me good on page 138 but I'll let you figure that one out for yourself. I read the puzzle, came up with the answer and did a triumphant "HA!" ... then had the feeling of dread it was far too easy so I read the puzzle again and ... well, this stuff works, people.
Brain Candy
- buy it now. Your brain will thank you. 
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