Customer Reviews

Normal Crazy People

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I have just finished reading Willie Horton's new book. Unlike any other book I have read in the general area of personal development, this one goes to and sticks with the BAD to make its points. There are some great stories in the book - some made me cringe, others made me laugh and in many I could recognise the traits of the main characters (either in people I know or indeed in myself!!).

Generally people of all ages love stories and of course stories are a great way of illustrating a point or a lesson (as is done through the use of folks tales and myths through the generations). In this book, Willie just draws on the stories created by the people he has come into contact with and as the book shows, they have proved to be a rich source of material. I particularly liked the line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic being akin to clairvoyant strategic planners!

So, if you would like to read some amusing stories while getting an irreverent reminder jolt about not settling for a life that is merely "not too bad", then I recommend that you get this book, read it through and then do something with the 10 steps that Willie includes at the end of the book!

Willie Horton's book, Normal Crazy has an off-putting title. No one wants to think they're crazy and how can normal be crazy? Well, after reading Horton's book, I get it. As Horton points out, we all go along slaves to our subconscious thinking, thinking that we had imprinted on us in our youth, repeating tapes of things we only understood at a child's live.

As an adult, if we really examined those tapes, or our behavior which is a result of our subconscious thinking, we'd see that we really are living a life that someone else has programed into us. And Horton's new book can show us the way to living the life we want, right now, not the life thrust upon us by a society that goes largely unexamined.

Sure this is a self-help book, but it's so radically different, that I can barely find the words to explain it, but here goes. Horton is Irish, and maybe that's why he's been given the gift of gab, and I mean that in the most flattering way. It's as if Jerry Seinfeld or Chelsea Handler were giving you a pep talk, or just telling you stories about the crazy things people do to mess up their lives.

This book is The Secret, and anything by Eckhart Tolle, or even the Dali Lama, but the difference is, that the author is that crazy uncle of yours who tells such great stories about all the folks back home. It's like taking your medicine, and yes I found myself being crazy-normal at times, with a spoonful of sugar. Or what the heck, the whole sugar canister.

What this book is really about, is living your authentic life. What it reads like is Chelsea Handler's "Hello, Vodka, it's me, Chelsea", and I can't think of a more pleasant way of learning how to take back my life.

At the end of the book Horton gives you a ten step program on how to live your life the way you want to live it. I'm going to personally follow his advice because it makes so much sense.

1. Knowing what's important to you

2. How would it feel to have arrived

3. Take your life off automatic pilot

4. Meditate

5. Don't put up with inappropriate behavior (I'm almost amazed that we put up with things from adults that we wouldn't put up with from our children.

6. Things not to do

7. Give yourself space

8. Do nothing (harder than it sounds in a society that judges us on what we've accomplished rather than who we are as people)

9. Don't be too hard on yourself (from my observation, the people who should be hard on themselves because of their behavior, never are)

10. Throw caution to the wind, or as Oprah likes to say, 'What would you do if you couldn't fail?'.

Great advice, and sorely needed in a world sadly lacking in common sense.

Normal Crazy People is an entertaining book that points out all the crazy things people do in the world. This book is also about how to live a happier more successful life. The author is a personal development and self-improvement coach who moved from Ireland to France. He points out some unusual tidbits about life in the United States and Europe. I learned that it is illegal to speak in an elevator in New York. It is also illegal to sing in a bath tub in Pennslyvania. It is even forbidden to use the toilet standing up after ten in the evening in Switzerland. I want to travel to all of these places in the near future, so this is helpful for me to know.

Willie Horton believes that normal crazy people do crazy things. This is because they don't pay attention and do not focus on the environment around them. I love reading the examples he provides of normal crazy behavior. I completely agree with Horton's line of logic. He contends that happy people are abnormal. Abnormal people are not afraid to be different. They are contrary to crazy people. They pay attention to their surrounding and have the ability to focus. His ideas make a lot of sense to me. Willie Horton provides tips on how to become abnormally happy. He provides ten tips for greater happiness.These are things like daily meditation, enjoy doing nothing. He also advises not to be obsessed with email and reading the newspaper. He suggests taking a walk at the beginning of each day. I think the most important tip he provides is not to be too hard on myself. This is something I have to remember every day. This is excellent advice that will make me happier. I have learned how to become an abnormally happy person because of this book.

This is a very simple book with a simple message. Since childhood we have all been conditioned to become what we are. When you read the book you will inevitably see parts of your life pass by in some guise. Willie Horton tries to allow you see life through other eyes and you can either rebuff or embrace his ideas and concepts , which at times are well outside ones comfort zones.

I would highly recommend this to anybody who is going to a questioning time in their life. it wont give you the answers, its not designed to!! But it will give you a fresh perspective

This book discusses the irrational, self-destructive behaviour of so-called normal people, i.e. basically sane people with various quirks in their personality. The author uses as examples his own friends, acquaintances, business associates and neighbours. Personally, I found it difficult to understand that he can know so many "normal, crazy people", as he terms them. (Though finally I found an explanation, which I state later in this review.)

I must admit I found it boring to hear of all the crazy things his various business associates got up to and, not having much business savvy, found the details of the stories somewhat incomprehensible. Later we are regaled with the nutty behaviour of his various friends (don't his friends mind his exposing their irrationalities, or is he so certain that none of them will ever read his books?)

I was finding it hard going to continue reading, since to me the stories seemed somewhat repetitive and monotonous. But Willie Horton and his family, who come from Dublin, now live in the French Alps and subsequently in the book light was shed on the strange ways of his neighbours ("the mountain folk"), persons who regard even those living in the neighbouring villages as "foreigners". These stories were more entertaining, and I can well believe them. One English couple, also living there, were on the point of getting sued because one of the "mountain folk" broke her ankle by stumbling over a lump of hard snow which she claimed originated from their property and thus belonged to them. However, the case ended by being dismissed.

The author presumably assumes also that his French neighbours will never read this book (he'd better never let it be translated into French, otherwise he might find himself in a pretty pickle).

Now, the real point of the book is that we should all refrain from all this irrational, crazy behaviour and begin to take charge of ourselves. If there's something wrong with our lives, it's our own fault (I would prefer to use the word "responsibility"), and therefore we can fix our life by doing something about it, by consciously changing our behaviour (though of course our bad behaviour is due to our subconscious programmes or beliefs - I don't remember what he said about how to deal with these). It turns out that the author holds self-help courses in which he advises people how to turn their lives around, so they can become normal, successful, instead of crazy, people.

And in the last sections of the book he begins to discuss such concepts as flow and synchronicity, and it turns out he has all sorts of sensible, constructive ideas about how we can improve our lives. He is no airy-fairy New Ager by any stretch of the imagination (and his at times vulgar language isn't quite in keeping with what might be expected of the author of what turns out to be a sort of upside-down self-help book.) We are advised to take chances, trust in life and take action, and this is when synchronicities and flow will occur/set in.

I suspect the author as having a strong Uranus in his horoscope, since he is by no means a run-of-the-mill sort of person. He probably has his Uranus on the descendant or in his 7th house (the 7th house being the area in the horocope that relates to others in one's life), and this is why he has so many acquaintances who display such crazy behaviour. Those who have some knowledge of psychology/metaphysics know that everyone in our life is really a projection of ourself, and thus in some way reflects back to us our own behaviour. (And I recall as a child reading books about the crazy behaviour of Irish people!)

The author is articulate, as befits an Irishman, but nonetheless the book is marred by countless grammatical errors ("their" instead of "they're", for instance, or vice versa) and typos.

To sum up, though I found the first part of the book boring, the latter half constituted a considerable improvement, and it thus became more and more readable and enjoyable. I quite concur with the author's practical, useful advice in the book's final chapters.