Help Yourself!

Now, you may have noticed that I have rather an eclectic taste in books.  Pretty much every genre is represented on my shelves and I love non-fiction as much as fiction.  There are a couple of weak spots, however.  Self-help is one of them, so I never expected to be reviewing a book like this.

When a notice was sent around my workplace about a compulsory workshop called 'The Art of Being Brilliant' that made it sound patronising in the extreme, however, I decided to go to the horse's mouth and find out what it was really all about.  Of course, the fact that the horse's mouth was book-shaped and had pages had absolutely no influence on me at all.  Ahem.

'The Art of Being Brilliant' by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker draws together a range of tried and
tested theories and ideas which they hope will help readers lead more positive lives.  They introduce the concepts of Mood Hoovers, people who bring themselves and others down by only ever seeing the negative, and 2%ers, who have a natural tendency to think and act in a way which sees them happier and more likely to feel great about life.  Most people hover between these two extremes.  In this book, Cope and Whittaker identify the key traits of 2%ers and open the door for readers to consciously adopt them.

'The Art of Being Brilliant'
by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker
(Capstone, 2012)

Since my first encounter with 'The Art of Being Brilliant' left me feeling patronised, I honestly expected to hate this book, especially when I saw it was full of oft repeated quotes and cutesy cartoons.  Not being a regular reader of this sort of thing, I'll admit to feeling sceptical for the first couple of chapters.  My eyebrows remained raised for a while to start with, so anyone watching me must've wondered what on Earth I was reading.  Anyway, I eventually relaxed into it and took the book in the slightly mischievous spirit in which it was written.  It's got the charming style of the classic 2%er and, once I stopped taking it too seriously, it made me laugh out loud on several occasions, so if nothing else it should cheer you up.

In the end, I was sad to be turning over the last page, but took away a number of common sense ideas which  seem obvious but can easily get lost in busy, everyday life.  I was relieved to discover I err towards being a 2%er and already have a HUGG (Huge Unbelievably Great Goal*) in the form of my mission to read all my unread books and keep up this blog.  If that leads to a reviewing job, that would be the icing on the cake, but it's not the reason I'm doing it.

I genuinely feel that everyone should be given a free copy of this book.  I always feel so sorry for mood hoovers - it must be horrible seeing life through a lens which makes it look so awful that the glass is not only half empty, it's dirty and got some unspecified creature living in it that will inevitably bite them.

'The Art of Being Brilliant' is accessible and cheeky, but firm and supportive, reminding readers that it's still up to them whether they decide to use what they've learned to become brilliant, positive, happier people.  As such, it's very much a middle class, midlife crisis sort of a book, but while it won't solve poverty or oppression or war, it can help people who really have nothing to be depressed about put things in perspective and make the bigger problems look possible to tackle together.

So, if you look around you and can't work out why you're not happier, this will probably give you a shove in the right direction.  Read it.  Read it now.

*Accidentally wrote 'Huge Unbelievably Great Goat' 

there then, but fortunately no one will ever know.