I’m not a fan of writing reviews on non-fiction books, as I tend to only read these types of books on subjects that interest me (or if I’m “required” to read for work, like all those Business books for example) and find it quite difficult to “briefly” summarize my thoughts in the short expanse of a book review. This is especially true when a nonfiction book I read is not just informative, but also insightful, impactful, and causes me to think differently about certain aspects of my life. Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking definitely falls into this category!
I’ve long known that I am an Introvert, which is one of the reasons why I was attracted to this book. However, going into it, I wasn’t really expecting to gain much, as I thought that this book would be very similar to others I’ve read on the same topic, most of which were informative but not what I would deem “enlightening.” Well, this book turned out to be very different from what I expected as far as “self-help” books go. Through meticulous research, interviews, as well as her own knowledge and experience, the author presented a very thorough account of what introversion is, its roots and history, pros and cons, and how it stacks up in comparisons to extroversion. While there were definitely some parts of the book that were way too “scientific” for my tastes, which made those sections a bit of a chore to get through, the author made up for it, in my opinion, through the various stories she recounted of her interactions with real-life introverts and extroverts (ordinary people whom she either met in the process of doing research for this book or friends/acquaintances she knew from before) as well as examples from the lives of famous public personalities such as Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Warren Buffett, Dale Carnegie, etc. I also appreciated how the author not only shared her own struggles in the area of public speaking but also personally got involved with attending workshops and motivational events to gain firsthand experience that she incorporated into the book. Though I didn’t always agree with some of the points that the author made, I respected the fact that she was able to back up those points with arguments that were both thorough and made sense.
For me personally, as an Asian-American working in the Corporate world, I was especially able to relate to the sections where the author discussed introversion and extroversion as it pertained to the business world (more specifically, to “Corporate America”) as well as to Asian culture. I gained quite a bit of insight in areas that, coincidentally, I had been struggling with recently. Of course, I’m not saying that this book is the solution to all of the issues I’ve been challenged with (nor do I expect it to play such a role), however the insight I’ve gained from reading this book has helped me put some things in perspective, and in turn, gives me a different angle with which to approach these issues.
Overall, this was a delightful read and a highly recommended one, regardless of whether you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert. The author covers both traits in enough detail that it is actually not necessary to identify with one trait or the other in order to gain something from this book. I’m actually recommending this book for some of my colleagues to read, as I feel it is more useful in the business sector than some of the traditional business books we are usually told to read (books that I find are generally less interesting and less engaging)!
(Read in January/February 2017)
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