How to be More Interesting (Paperback)

Edward de Bono's books tend to be good reads, even though some of his titles disappoint.
Unfortunately I feel that this is one of his weaker books. Whilst it remains an interesting read I felt that it simply put a fresh spin on ideas he had introduced in other titles. De Bono does not come of with a satisfactory definition for what being interesting is. The book is basically a series of exercises, which I felt was too narrow a scope for such a broad subject. Frankly, I expected more.

When Edward de Bono's books are at there best they rock your world. They open up brand new doors and turn readers into broad-minded free thinkers. How to become more interesting remains simply adequate.

My two-star rating of this book is a combination of a three-star rating for the printed version for a young person with limited training in thought processes and a one-star rating for the Recorded Books audiocassette version.

This book begins with an intriguing premise: We should spend as much time and effort making ourselves interesting as we do with working on our physical appearance and clothing.

The book is all down hill from there.

I listened to the audiocassette version, and found it infuriating to be asked to compare long lists of random words and make connections. Since I listen to audiocassettes while I drive, this meant continually pulling over to write down the lists . . . then write out the answers. It took me half an hour to do the 10 minutes to or from work some days. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE AUDIOCASSETTE VERSION! Mr. de Bono should know better than to authorize such a version, unless he was going to develop different exercises that could be done easily while listening.

In the first half of the book, Mr. de Bono makes a point of stripping out subjects of normal interest such as emotion-laden topics, direct references to personal lives, and gossip. He also excludes using one's special knowledge to make one more interesting for the purposes of this book.

So the book is basically for someone who knows very little and wants to have free-form speculative discussions with little connection to reality. I assume that he has someone like a high school student in mind. Otherwise, the references and assignments are an insult to anyone who has studied any forms of thinking or communication.

I won't go so far as to say the book is boring, but I will say it isn't very relevant. Are you going to turn to your companions at dinner and suggest that they write down random lists of words and then connect them? I don't think that will make you sought out as an interesting dinner companion.

In terms of making someone more interesting to others, I suspect that reading a book containing little-known facts about human psychology and behavior would be a better use of your time.

Otherwise, this book simply encourages the uninformed to remain that way in a speculative haze of words.