Who Are You?: 101 Ways of Seeing Yourself (Compass) [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Malcolm Godwin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 1, 2000 | Series: Compass

* What does the shape of your head and your hands tell about your personality?
* Are you left-brain or right-brain dominant? Yin or yang?
* What is your spiritual tendency?
* Are you sanguine, melancholic, choleric, or phlegmatic?
* Which is your most essential element--wood, fire, earth, metal, or water?
* Are you a sensualist, romantic, or courtesan?

Created by a renowned artist/illustrator, this beautiful and practical book contains one hundred and one intriguing, easy to follow, and often amusing devices that will help readers determine their abilities, personality type, psychological strategies, and deeper potential. As fun to use as it is profound in its revelations, Who Are You? is drawn from ancient teachings and contemporary findings. The "tests" it contains are divided into four sections--the body, the emotions, the intellect, and the spirit. The result is one hundred and one separate identity mirrors that work together to give readers a comprehensive self-portrait that is both revealing and informative.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this comprehensive and colorfully illustrated "identity kit," readers examine themselves through 101 lenses, including the sun signs, the "Sevenfold Faces of Siang Mien" (a test that examines facial shapes), the models of Chinese medicine (are you a nurturer, explorer, magicia, or alchemist?), and even which sections of your brain are the most dominant. Numerous ancient and modern traditions and sciences are used to uncover how we think, feel, relate to the divine, and physically embody this lifetime.

Of course, the information will seem contradictory at times. For example, if your body type is endomorph you probably have a sluggish, go-with-the-flow personality. Yet, if you were also born in 1963 you are ruled by the tiger, indicating you are rash, impulsive, and quick-tempered. But never mind all that. This is meant to be a tool for self-exploration, not a tidy, compact formula. The quality stock paper, lovely illustrations and photographs, and stellar research make this a fascinating household staple--guaranteed to capture everyone's curiosity. A perfect party book. Gail Hudson

About the Author

Malcolm Godwin is a bestselling author and artist whose works have appeared in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Glasgow Art Gallery in Scotland, under the name Malcolm Carder. Also a designer, Godwin created the artwork for Stephen Hawking's The Illustrated A Brief History of Time and Rita Carter's Mapping the Mind. He lives in Dorset, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140196099
• ISBN-13: 978-0140196092
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.6 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Malcolm Godwin (aka Carder and Sw. Anand Yatri) was born in 1936. He came late to writing as originally he was a kinetic and constructionist artist exhibiting at such galleries as Fondation Maeght,Provence, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Kunsthalle, Köln, "The Kinetic Show"at the Hayward Gallery, London as well as well as creating a large kinetic artwork powered by a fuel cell at the British Pavilion at Expo67, Montreal. Works are owned by the Arts Council, The Contemporary Arts Society, the Tate Gallery, London, Glasgow Art Gallery, Museum of Modern Art Philadelphia and the Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis. Worked with the architect, Theo Crosby, at Pentagram and contributed to "How to Play the Environment Game" exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and the Penguin book of the same name.
Was commissioned by the architect Colin St. John Wilson to create a preliminary survey of the originally proposed site in Bloomsbury for the new British Library. Iit might have had some effect on changing the Library's final location!
Invited to give a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in the East End of London, the artist instead chose to fly to India, confident that his mystic experiences would flower into enlightenment within a few hours of landing. He still awaits that supreme outcome of his quest for truth 34 years later.

He lived in India for seven years designing and helping to publish the books of the Indian mystic, Osho, and compiling a biography of the mystic's life up until 1980 called "The Sound of Running Water." After a year wandering Europe and then three years in the USA, mostly on a very un-mystical pipe and sewer crew, he and his designer wife, Magdalena, settled in Tuscany. There, they co-founded a publishing company called Labyrinth, for which they designed and illustrated such books as Stephen Hawking's "The Illustrated A Brief History of Time" and "Universe in a Nutshell" as well as writing and illustrating four original best sellers, one of which is "The Holy Grail."

In 1996 the design and illustration partnership called Moonrunner was founded. Apart from designing many works including "Mapping the Mind" by Rita Carter, and "Grandmere" by David Roosevelt, many computer generated illustrations have been created for such books as "The Ancestors Tale" by Richard Dawkins and "Universe" by Dorling Kindersley, The mainly cosmological and neurological illustrations are for magazines including The National Geographic, Scientific American, Discover, Kijk ,Welt der Wunder, The New York Times, and Mother Jones. The company is now venturing into translating earlier physical works into ebooks, as well as creating original graphic cartoons and digital apps for platforms like Kindle and the iPad.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 101 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What an enjoyable book August 22, 2000

By atmj TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I received this book in the mail from Amazon, the first thing I did was to page through it completely. The art work is riveting. Malcolm Goodwin's illustrations have such motion in them they are a joy to look at. The color and illustrations as well as the quality of this publication is top-notch. This was obvious by just paging through it the first time. I've nearly dog-eared the pages by now.

As a person who has dabbled with astrology, numerology, palm reading, personality types, etc. this books puts them all in one place and simply. It is like all my mini-vices in one neat package.

There are four sections of evaluations: Body, Feeling, Thinking and Spiritual. In each of these you can evaluate where you fit and what characteristics each type is endowed with.

The introduction at the beginning of the book puts it all into perspective. You get out of this book what you put into it. The author indicates there are four ways you can approach the book.

1. As entertainment.

2. As a map of the types of people out there, some we are kin to.

3. A means of understanding your own behavior.

4. A means of realizing who you are, versus who you think you are or want to be.

Rarely does a book truly respond to all these needs. If you want a lightly entertaining book and you dive in with that attitude, you'll get that. If you want a sense of direction of where you are to where you want to be. This may help you get there. If you want a sense of who you are, this can help.

I don't know if people serious in any of these subjects would find this book accurate or even correct. I really don't know enough to check this. And if I did, what would be the point?

This book is about self discovery. To be honest, I doubt someone really serious in any of these would buy this book unless to look at the areas they are not that experienced in. Each topic of self discovery, all 101 of them take up only (2) 8-1/2" X 8-1/2" pages. Just enough to introduce the topic, give you the scale to work with and it's characteristics. If you want to go further on the topic, you have enough background information to start digging in.

I have spent many an entertained hour just going back and forth from one topic to another. What is really neat is when a bunch of people look at it all at once too. The discussions can get pretty interesting. It is a discovery in itself when you see what ratings others give you. Teenagers have a ball with this.

This book is perfect for the young person who is trying to realize who they are and who they want to be. For the middle ager like myself and the elderly, it is interesting to note where I've been as well as where I'm going. You can also look at your children's types as well.

All and all, this book is a good investment.

This is a book that can be fun, introspective and enlightening.

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Who Are You" is a great tool in journey of self-discovery January 13, 2000

By Mark

Format:Paperback

I'm not sure there are words in existence that could describe what I thought as a turned through Malcolm Godwin's new exploration of self-discovery. This book was exactly what I was looking for, needed. And, let me tell you, I am so glad I found it.

The strangest thing was that, during the time period when I stumbled on "Who Are You ..." I was going through a rough bout of depression. It seemed that the core of my problems was that I wasn't sure who I really was inside, what I wanted to pursue in the future.

Being in my college years, this depression came at an extremely fragile time, as the college ages provide enough confusion and difficulty as it is. Anyhow, I went to visit my brother (who knew I was pretty down and out), and he told me I should check out this new book he had. Trusting in his literary taste (as always) I took the paperback from his hands, and began flipping through it.

So much of what Godwin explains is true. I couldn't believe how much I agreed and related several of the 101 ways. This title is undoubtedly a stroke of genius, which everybody in the world should read. All human beings need to find themselves, and we all go through these stages of self-discovery. Godwin's new book may well be just the dictionary of self-discovery knowledge people need to succeed at the feat.

I cannot say how much better I felt after completing "Who are you ...". Everybody should give it a try. Who knows, you might find a whole different personality in yourself.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide to self understanding and discovery. February 13, 2000

By Sadgrad

Format:Paperback

Simply put, this is the best book ever in regards to understanding yourself. Covers almost every topic you could possibly imagine from body type, hand shape, dominant personalities, astrology (not just Western philosophies), aptitude tests and an almost endless amount of information. Worth five times more than the price. A definite must have.