The You Code: What your habits say about you [Paperback]

This is a truly abysmal book and I am amazed that a publisher would ever have agreed to publish it. Despite what it claims, this book does nothing to explain your behaviours or those of other people.

What is notable about all its assertions is that they are not based on research, not a scrap, there is the occasional reference to a survey or a piece of other research but these are not referenced and the main text of the book appears to be based on nothing other than the most crass interpretations of everyday behaviours and choices. For example, who says that your sandwich filling says something about you? What does it mean if you have cheese one day and tuna the next? May be you just have them BECAUSE YOU LIKE THEM???

First out of the traps is what kind of coffee you drink, that makes no allowances for whether you have one drink one day and one another. However, it is people who don't like coffee (of which I have encountered a great number) who get the shortest shrift: "Never has a phrase been so shocking, show-stopping and as strangely alienating as "I don't drink coffee... In body language terms you'll see people who don't even try to mask the fact they think you're freak... If it's the taste that puts you off then you really are a child. Coffee tastes wonderful. Get over it." Blimey, you've been told. Notably, there is nothing about people who don't like tea...

Alarm bells should have rung when the jacket blurb describes Judi James as "a body language expert". Where do you go to train to be one of those? What qualifications do you need? What she certainly isn't is a psychologist and this quickly becomes blindingly obvious as you make your way further into the book.

If you happen to be able to identify any of your own behaviours in this book then there is a likelihood that your self-esteem might take a battering if you are easily led. All the choices detailed in the book seem to indicate that no matter what you do you will reveal yourself to be a pathetic individual with very little hope of functioning successfully either socially or professionally. This is further added to by the supercilious verging on the nasty tone of the book.

There are also proof-checking howlers. "Change of roll" for the television, oh dear.

If you are interested in whether our behaviours and choices have meaning then I suggest you read Sam Gosling's Snoop. Gosling is an academic psychologist who has done proper research into the area of the significance of our "stuff" and aligns this with proper measures of personality.

The only thing The You Code says about you is that you'll believe anything.

Thought I'd had enough of self-help books but this one really is brilliant, dead funny plus toe-curlingly true when it comes to seeing yourself how others see you! I'm off to sort out my bathroom cabinet and bin all those cuddly toys on my bed before my next date!

I loved this book. It is full of fascinating facts, and it's a real laugh working out what type of person you are. I went through it with some of my female friends, and it kept us amused for hours. I'd recommend it to anyone!