life is short...

Have an affair.

That's the motto of The Ashley Madison Agency, a dating Web site designed to help married people have affairs.

I found the site just hours before reading this article, one woman's confession of why she's been cheating on her husband for the past 16 months...but still loves him.

Earlier this week, for Sunday's book column, I finally broke down and read "The Truth about Cheating: Why Men Stray and What You Can Do to Prevent It," M. Gary Neuman's controversial book that suggests male infidelity is in many situations preventable.

I expected to hate the book.

I didn't.

In fact, many of its suggestions were pretty helpful. I basically closed the book and initiated a quest toward personal betterment.

Thing is, it would be a great book if it just had a different title. Neuman's suggestions are bound to make any relationship stronger, and any couple fall more in love.

But when offered in the context of preventing infidelity, advice on how to care for your partner gets a dangerous "or else" vibe that detracts from the romance it's supposed to ignite.