When we rang A. J. Jacobs’ bell, we weren’t sure what we would find. After all, this was the guy who had, at different times, impersonated a beautiful woman in cyberspace, grown a beard of biblical dimensions to see how Moses lived and outsourced his life to an assistant in Bangalore. Like a method actor, A. J. fully immerses himself in his research. We hardly expected him to greet us as himself, wearing jeans and a button-down (what, no period costume?)  and offer us food and drink.

A. J. explained that he had recently thinned out his shelves to make room for more books. We marveled at his pragmatic approach to his library. “I’ve learned to let go of books,” he said. “I think the ideas contained in books are irreplaceable, but I’m not obsessed with the actual books.” Some of his favorite titles, such as Tom Wolfe’s The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, had been 86′ed. New additions to his collection included The Blue Zones, which he’s reading as part of his next book (and life experiment) on becoming the healthiest person alive.

While books come and go in A. J.’s life, facts remain his ultimate conquest. He admits that he’s probably the last person in the world to own a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. His love of trivia isn’t completely innocent, however, as his story about his nemesis brother-in-law reveals. Trivia is A. J.’s secret weapon, and he likes to be fast on the draw. “Like hunters have a bunch of heads on their den wall, I like having all these strange facts that I can reference.”

Before her interview with Stacked Up TV (and unbeknownst to us), Laurie Sandell blogged about whether she should hide some of her books.

“I have a number of books I’d rather not share with the World Wide Web: Self-help relationship books, self-help money books (with the exception of Suze Orman–she goes front and center), 12 step literature, books on palm reading and astrology and therapy…What do you think: Hide the contraband or own it?”

When we asked Laurie early into our interview, “Are there any books in your collection that you’re embarrassed to have on your shelves?” we had no idea the potential treasure trove we were opening up. Luckily, Laurie had resolved her dilemma by then and appeared to enjoy answering the question. She revealed a nifty feature in her shelves that allows her to hide books at each end. And while modesty prevented her from sharing all her contraband, we got a peek at several private titles her visitors don’t usually see. Titles such as, What Women Want Men to Know by Barbara DeAngelis, and Duane Brown’s Flying Without Fear. Laurie disclaimed, “I would like to say that, even though I’m embarrassed to have these books on my shelves, I do love them.” We expected nothing less from the memorist who dedicated her book, “To all the truth tellers.”