BOOK REVIEW: Reading People by Anne Bogel

Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes is the latest written flick by Anne Bogel. The title is so cliched and attractive at the same time that I decided to pick this book last week. For those of you, likewise me, are unaware of who is Anne Bogel, well, she is a blogger who excessively read books and share stuff like #bookstagram on her blog Modern Mrs. Darcy.

The title of the book is misleading to an extent but I love the fact the author has the power to attract readers. However, one of my later realisation about the title came when I completed reading the book. It’s actually directed towards the reader. “Reading People” is all about reading yourself by yourself. Yeah, now it might sound self-help and it certainly is but this book does not enforce “tips & tricks” like most do. The book shares Anne’s personal insight, about her career, her marriage, an HSP she is (wait till you read the book, I am sure you will grab one or two terms like these).

The book is develop on the basic idea of Introverts/Extroverts introduced by Carl Jung in the previous century. Anne introduces the concept in detail and along in the narration a reader can start to realise what type of personality the writer is. This, I believe is a great excersice and a useful to indulge themselves (from a reader’s point-of-view) such that when reading ahead, a reader can clearly classify themselves and gain insight on their own personality type. The author then covers most of the useful and pragmatic personality frameworks such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, and Enneagram.

She explains to readers the life-changing insights that can be gained from each and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life. Her writing style is personal, relatable, casual and enjoyable. The pace of the book is picks up once a reader is introduce to various frameworks. I think this book will be helpful in any way to any reader who addresses it. There is something to gain (maybe more) and nothing to lose if you decide to read this book.