My primary focus with this blog is to review and recommend books for children. My vision is that parents, teachers, and caregivers can find titles that are engaging and motivating for the kids in their lives. However, I also believe that in order for adults to inspire children to read, they themselves must be readers.
Therefore, I will also share reviews and details on titles I love here on the blog. Research shows that when kids see adults around them reading, they develop value for reading. Also, that action encourages them to use their free time for reading.
Today, I'm sharing a brand new nonfiction release (in stores as of September 19). The book, Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything, was written by a book blogger I have been following for a few years, Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy. This book is all about personality and how understanding personality helps us know ourselves and others better.
Let me begin by saying I love studying personality. In college, I was a psychology minor and one of my all time favorite courses was entitled "Personality". In fact, my favorite part of studying psychology was understanding the inner workings of why people are the way they are. My first big "ah-ha" moment about personality came as a freshman in college. I was a business major at the time (that didn't last long) and as a first-year requirement, was part of a professional learning community of other freshman students. We had upper classmen mentors, and one of our first tasks was to take the Strengths Finder (discussed in Reading People). I took the test, got my five top traits (Input, Achiever, Learner, Futuristic, Activator). I remember thinking "that is spot on, how cool!". In our group meeting that week, we were supposed to discuss our traits, and I was floored to learn my traits were vastly different from everyone else's. Most of the other group members shared at least one or two top traits, but none with me. It was so eye-opening, and definitely led me to do some reconsidering on my major. Three months later, I changed my major and never looked back.
Today, I am fascinated about learning how personality works. I want to know more about my own personality to better understand how I operate and how to be more efficient in work. As I have gotten older, though, I also appreciate how understanding allows me to know other people, my colleagues, friends, and students. Particularly when I become frustrated with someone, I turn to personality as a way to evaluate the situation and proceed with a response. Reading People has definitely made this information much easier to understand.
by Anne Bogel
Confessions time, when I first heard about this book and that it would cover personality, I was a bit skeptical. The book covers differences between extroverts and introverts, highly sensitive people, love languages, Kiersey's temperaments, Myers-Briggs, cognitive functioning, Strength's Finder, and Enneagram. My skepticism was - "isn't this information available separately? and free? and everywhere?" As a personality junkie, I'd explored these before and in detail (though not Enneagram). I honestly didn't see how having all of these measures in one place would be beneficial. I'm glad I gave this book a chance because I was pleasantly surprised.
It was so much fun to read chapter by chapter about different personality measures. The book is also formatted so that each measure builds on itself. I think, in many ways, it approached personality as easiest to most challenging paradigms. I definitely struggled a bit to place myself in cognitive functioning and Enneagram. I'm not 100% sold on the cognitive functioning, but I can accept my results for now.
Anne's explanations are very clear and easy to follow. She also provides background information and relatable vignettes that address common misconceptions and issues. For example, she describes how people often mislabel themselves in Myers-Briggs. I can relate to this because I have struggled for a while to decide between an INTP or INTJ. With her explanations and seeing how cognitive functions and Kiersey's temperaments relate to Myers-Briggs, I was able to confirm I'm an INTJ.
In short, this book is really fun and so pretty, which is always a nice bonus. I think this is a nice introduction to personality for people who may not know where to start. I also think junkies will like seeing the measures next to each other - it's fun to compare and contrast in that way.
For teachers and parents, this book can be a useful tool to better understanding yourself and the children in your life. Sometimes, personality sheds light on behaviors by providing a rationale for why a child acts the way he or she does. Understanding personality can also help adults see how their personality complements or challenges a child's. This book is a great place to start for understanding those similarities and differences.
Happy Reading!
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