Ben & Me

One man''s attempt to live by Benjamin Franklin''s thirteen virtues-part memoir, part social experiment, and part tribute to America''s first self-help author.Thirteen weeks. Thirteen virtues.Cameron Gunn considered himself a regular guy-a pretty good husband, father, attorney, and friend.But was there room for improvement?A reader of history and a fan of Ben Franklin (and weary of self-help advice that never seems to offer much help), Gunn decided to try a little experiment. He would attempt to live by Franklin''s thirteen virtues, a list of lofty ideals the Founding Father held dear, as enumerated in his famous autobiography.Would Gunn''s plan to improve his life, Citizen Ben-style, prove to be a brilliant reinvention of the self-help movement or a boondoggle of revolutionary proportions?By turns heartfelt, hilarious, and more than a little humbling, Gunn''s adventure takes this ordinary man way outside his comfort zone and into a thicket of not-so-modern values. The result is an engaging mix of humor and history-with perhaps a lightning bolt of inspiration or two along the way.