Customer Reviews

How You Can Be More Interesting

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a big fan of Mr. de Bono's, but I was very disappointed in this book. I suggest that you stick to his books about creativity.

My two-star rating of this book is a combination of a three-star rating for the printed version for a young person with limited training in thought processes and a one-star rating for the Recorded Books audiocassette version.

This book begins with an intriguing premise: We should spend as much time and effort making ourselves interesting as we do with working on our physical appearance and clothing.

The book is all down hill from there.

I listened to the audiocassette version, and found it infuriating to be asked to compare long lists of random words and make connections. Since I listen to audiocassettes while I drive, this meant continually pulling over to write down the lists . . . then write out the answers. It took me half an hour to do the 10 minutes to or from work some days. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE AUDIOCASSETTE VERSION! Mr. de Bono should know better than to authorize such a version, unless he was going to develop different exercises that could be done easily while listening.

In the first half of the book, Mr. de Bono makes a point of stripping out subjects of normal interest such as emotion-laden topics, direct references to personal lives, and gossip. He also excludes using one's special knowledge to make one more interesting for the purposes of this book.

So the book is basically for someone who knows very little and wants to have free-form speculative discussions with little connection to reality. I assume that he has someone like a high school student in mind. Otherwise, the references and assignments are an insult to anyone who has studied any forms of thinking or communication.

I won't go so far as to say the book is boring, but I will say it isn't very relevant. Are you going to turn to your companions at dinner and suggest that they write down random lists of words and then connect them? I don't think that will make you sought out as an interesting dinner companion.

In terms of making someone more interesting to others, I suspect that reading a book containing little-known facts about human psychology and behavior would be a better use of your time.

Otherwise, this book simply encourages the uninformed to remain that way in a speculative haze of words.

This book is really a workbook, and not the normal kind of book you read and then perhaps put down and forget about, without implementing in your life.

De Bono suggests that you do 1 exercise a day (1-2 pages), so it will take you a while to get through the book. It's not something you read in 1 or 2 sittings.

I noticed that after doing the first 5 or so exercises I did change my way of thinking when talking to people - in my mind I would have 2-4 backup conversation topics, which arose out of what we were talking about - it was a strange effect to notice this in myself.

However you should note that you need to keep doing his exercises and keep practicing and exercising your brain, as when I stopped after having done these 5 exercises the effect went away after a few weeks.

It is an odd experience to read a book about being interesting that is neither inspiring nor interesting itself. The text mainly consists of excercises to get the reader used to developing concepts or alternatives around given information, which the author says is the basis of creating interest. Each excercise takes one page, then the author give his answer, which is almost always tedious and dull. Sorry, but I don't feel this book is likley to be avidly read by many people!

The content gets 3 stars, however, the narration is extremely boring. David Ackroyd failed to hold my interest in listening intently for even a minute.

There are different sorts of interest.

In this book de Bono tries to get the reader to train his mind to look at things in a fresh and unusual way. This isn't going to please everyone because some people are quite happy with the way they view the world.

Reading this book and doing the exercises has made me a more interesting conversationalist, and of course there is nothing more satisfying than being the most interesting person around a dinner table.

Boring, dull, banal...why do people write such dribble, why do publishers publish it. The last few DeBono books have been nothing more than vain exercises in self-gratification. This one may be the worst. You get the feeling the author has a writing quota or something. Pathetic.