It’s no secret I’m a big fan of personality tests. I’ve recently read a book on the Enneagram in the hopes of learning my type, and this book seemed to fit perfectly in the mix while I was in the mood for self-discovery. After reading I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel, I was excited to read this book mostly so I could discover Anne’s Myers Briggs Personality type. Her voice in I’d Rather Be Reading was intensely relatable, almost as if I could have written the book myself. I had a sneaking suspicion Anne was an INFP like I am.

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BLURB:

If the viral Buzzfeed-style personality quizzes are any indication, we are collectively obsessed with the idea of defining and knowing ourselves and our unique place in the world. But what we’re finding is this: knowing which Harry Potter character you are is easy, but actually knowing yourself isn’t as simple as just checking a few boxes on an online quiz.

For readers who long to dig deeper into what makes them uniquely them (and why that matters), popular blogger Anne Bogel has done the hard part–collecting, exploring, and explaining the most popular personality frameworks, such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, and others. She explains to readers the life-changing insights that can be gained from each and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life. In her friendly, relatable style, Bogel shares engaging personal stories that show firsthand how understanding personality can revolutionize the way we live, love, work, and pray.

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“Once you understand yourself, you can stop fighting your natural tendencies and plan for them instead.”

Spoiler alert, Anne is an INFP, making her love of reading and personality typing even more understandable. We love delving deep into the inner workings of ourselves and others. There is no better way than by walking in someone else’s shoes while reading or researching the types of personalities and how they might respond to different stimuli in our world.

“The very process of wrestling through the inventory’s questions forces people into a useful posture of self-awareness and self-examination. It’s helpful on a personal level too. So many young people may feel they’re a mess, especially if they’re one of the rarer types. When a person identifies and learns about their type, they discover it’s okay to be themselves.”

Overall, I found this book to be a simple introduction to the world of personality typing. Anne covers a variety of classification systems, from MBTI to the Enneagram and everything in between. I took away more knowledge than I had going into this book, so I call that a win. I didn’t know anything about Keirsey’s Temperments or The Clifton Strengths Finder and found the chapters on those to be quite interesting. Anne has a great way of breaking down these sometimes hard to understand typing systems and making them as clear as crystal.

My favorite chapter of this book was the “Highly Sensitive People” chapter. Understanding of introversion and extroversion has exploded in recent years thanks to many newer books on the topics, however, high sensitivity is still fairly obscure. I consider myself a highly sensitive person and was glad to learn more about how I may respond to the world around me. When Anne described what it was like for her as a stay-at-home mother and a highly sensitive person, I could have shouted “HALLELUJAH!” It made me realize the things I often beat myself up for as a mother are my natural responses to being overwhelmed by noise, clutter, or other annoyances. Not that these things are excuses for bad behavior, but it made me realize I have the tools for preventing a personal meltdown by recognizing the signs of overwhelm. The main tool in my arsenal is awareness!

If you’re interested in learning more about personality, I can’t recommend a better place to start.

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase on Amazon.

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