3.5 stars

An excellent introduction to various personality frameworks for those who have heard about them in passing but don't know much about them and don't know where to start learning. This gives an overview of several popular theories (Highly Sensitive Persons, 5 Love Languages, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, etc.) so you can figure out which one is up your alley and worth investigating more. (If you've already read up on a few of these, this book is probably not worth the read, though.)

I liked this, but most of the anecdotes are from Anne's personal life, so they speak repeatedly to her unique personality (INFP, in MBTI-speak) and those of her family members. I couldn't relate to many of the examples for that reason. If you are an INFP or have one in your life, though, you might glean some interesting insights specific to them.

Another thing that bothered me is that she used examples from many classics and included spoilers! I know many people believe classics can't be spoiled, but truly, they can be. I want to be able to enjoy those books the first time I read them and since Anne is a fellow book-lover, I think she should have realized that not every one of her readers knows the classics like she does. ( )

Full disclosure: I adore Anne Bogel. I was a guest on her podcast -- twice -- and I'm a fan of anything she does. I think she's genuine, thoughtful, and sweet. So I had high hopes for READING PEOPLE -- especially after having really enjoyed I'D RATHER BE READING a couple of months ago.

This one didn't land nearly as well with me. I think I'm not the target audience. I'm not Christian, so all the bible verses and references to the church fell flat. I'm also very well versed in personality frameworks. From the MBTI to Enneagram and, most recently, Human Design (which isn't mentioned at all in READING PEOPLE), I've studied them all.

This book would serve as an excellent introduction for anyone new to the world of viewing themselves through the various lenses of personality frameworks. But those more versed in the topic can safely skip it. ( )

3.75 * The parts describing the personality frameworks was very good, however for me there was too much of the authors own experiences and I get that examples were needed but for me this could have been less. ( )

This is a pretty good overall view of several systems of personality classification. I thought some of the insights were quite good, including the idea that personality typing doesn't put you "in a box," as some fear; rather, it enables you to "get out of your own way," as the author says, by recognizing your innate patterns of behavior, especially during times of stress, and make conscious decisions to adjust the way you handle things. ( )

I'm not really interested in analyzing personalities but mostly wanted to know what Anne means when she talks about it on WSIRN. ( )