Customer Reviews

Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks

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Brain Building is a workbook for improving your intelligence, but it's much more. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the unconventional, down-to-earth, downright fun "exercises". The author provides an array of effective, specific techniques and strategies for improving your understanding of and facility with words, numbers, logic, and life, in general. I worked through it several years ago and it literally changed my life. Not a day goes by that I do not draw on its ideas which range from assembling an "intellectual first aid kit" to how to analyze a newspaper editorial. Beautifully written in vos Savant's clear, powerful, concise style, each "exercise" is a gem of wisdom. "Brain Building" is my toolkit for coping with the vortex which is life in America at the dawning of a new millenium.

If I could give a copy of this book to every person on the planet, I would. I cannot count the number of fundamental insights into understanding life and living that this book has given me.

Starting with the single most vital point "your brain is the most important thing that you own", Marilyn Vos Savant goes on to illuminate the many different facets of thinking, pointing out common mistakes and providing exercises to improve each area.

I would consider the second essential point to be "just as physical exercise is required for physical fitness, mental exercise is necessary for mental fitness." The exercises themselves are very informative. Generally, they are tasks which materially improve one's life, while working out specific areas of the intellect.

Hmmmm.... this may be overly melodramatic, but I would summarize by saying, "Life is a journey, but if you lead it in a smart fashion, it will be much more productive and rewarding." _Brain Building_ is a guidebook toward a better journey.

Altough this book did not live up to its title of brain building, it was still an interesting read. This was mostly due to the interesting ways the author thinks about and relates to many common occurences. The author also writes intelligently and shares a great deal of knowledge and wisdom with the reader throughout the text. The actual brain building techniques are simple, everday excercises that don't do much in the way of making an individual smarter (maybe they work for the author's point of view, which is defined as how an individual could score higher on an IQ test). I did, however, feel smarter after reading the author's prose throughout the course of the book, which makes this a book that is a worthwhile read, but not a groundbreaking discovery of a way to make people smarter.

There are two books that come to mind that, though they do not fall in the realm of religious inspiration, are so thought-provoking that they are life changing. They are: 1. Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin and 2. Brain Building: Exercising Yourself Smarter, the latter of which I will comment on.

I purchased this book about 4 years ago when I was working a full-time job and going to graduate school to earn a Master of Education degree in Mathematics. The math courses suited me for the most part, since they pertained to both my major and my interests in working with numbers. The education courses, on the other hand, were intimidating, because I grew up with an inferiority complex about my abilities to perform in courses that demanded both extensive amounts of reading and the ability to comprehend several themes and passages.

It was during this period that, because I was going to school and working full-time simultaneously, on many days the only opportunities I had to study were either during my lunch hour or right after I arrived home late at night with thoughts of having to be back at work the next morning. Fortunately, it was also then that I was already enthralled enough with Marilyn's books and Parade column to buy this publication.

Among the several helpful suggestions Marilyn pointed out in this book is that when reading, do not hesitate to write your thoughts and opinions in the margins alongside key paragraphs and sentences. This particular approach, in a manner of speaking, places you on a more equal footing with the professor or author, and it is a valuable reminder that your interpretations and viewpoints are just as important as, if not more important than, the material you are trying to focus upon.

Despite my limited time and resources, this piece of advice helped me to participate adequately in classroom discussions. Except for a couple of B's, which I received before I even bought this book, I ended up graduating with A's in every course.

Thank you, God! And thank you, Marilyn!

I bought this book and completed it in less than a week - not 12 weeks. I think you will too. It is informative, insightful but most important of all: FUN to do the "Brain" exercises whilst learning about the brain(you). I bought it over 6 years ago and it still delights and haunts me.

i'm glad to see that even the smartest person in the world is underlying local (USA) mentality. regardless the beautiful fact that we ALL are humans, i learned some tricks which help me to master daily standard problem-situations better. this makes this book absolutly worth being read.

Personally, when I started reading the book, it was not bad. I liked the mathematics section on how to solve subtle problems through picture drawing. Very intersting. The problem is, the Brain Builder exercises are rather weird and some of them are just plain awkward. I expected the "Logic" section to be much more sophsisticated since I'm really into intelligence building through logic. For those who are starters in the field of "ADMIRATION OF INTELLIGENCE", this book is alright. I'm experimenting with other books also. If I find a more agressive one, I will note.

She writes with eloquence, even if she's a bit of a vocabulary enthusiast. But it's basically a workbook where she wants you to do some activity to expand your horizons every week or so. Like "summarize a newspaper editorial in as few words as possible and ask your friends if they get the gist of it" or "look up a new word every day", mixed in with some brainteasers here and there.

It was enjoyable enough to read and play with the exercises, but it's one of those books you have to revisit. Ideally, you'd spread the reading of it over a year or so and work through the exercises as you go. But once I start, I have to get through it.

I have yet to actually implement the program as she's presented it, but the exercises are good, and no doubt if you applied yourself to this program over the year, you'd be very well set.

Marilyn just basically urges her readers to be more involved and present in their lives and the world around them. If you have been living a passive existence up to now then you should read this book and discover that knowledge is power! You will find that reading becomes more enjoyable and meaningful when you take steps to expand your vocabulary; making a game out of guessing the temperature makes going outside a little more fun; you can entertain yourself on the bus by thinking of all the ways wombats and kittens and different and similar; next time you read a mystery you can sharpen your intuition by guessing the ending based on clues and then finding out how close you were. Really though, buy this book and enlighten yourself. Your life will be better because of it.

This is a good book.

First, it does what it says it does. The scores of exercises will pump up the mind. I was hoping for more of the "solve this type of problem and think this way" sort of thing-and there is alot of this. But whats included will give you a more "rounded-off" intellect. In some of the exercises you have to think of which compass direction you are pointed in and try to be aware of it-in others you have to solve a logic puzzle! I have yet to do all of the exercises. Some of them I probably wont do-because of the type of people I work around and the constraints of my environment there. And cryptograms must be some form of intellectual torture technique.

Second, the book gave me a good look at what the really smart folks think of intelligence. I have come to know that there are many facets of it and developing in all areas is important. The Nerd at school is possibly the intellectual equivalent of the corporate executive-they have just developed their intellects along different lines. One seemingly useful, the other seemingly annoying. Try to guess who falls into which category after reading the book!

Bye now {:?)