I've long been a fan of personality assessments, learning about styles and relationships, and understanding what makes people tick. There's a ton of information available, much of it scientific and/or confusing. Reading People makes the information accessible.

Anne Bogel is not a scientist, but she has a passion for personality that explodes from her writing. With personal anecdotes and data, she weaves information together in a way that allows the reader to easily follow along and understand the various personality frameworks.

This was a really helpful book for me, one that I will use as a reference and revisit for years to come.

Reading People by Anne Bogel is the personality book I've always wanted to read but didn't know it. She breaks down several of the most popular and well-known personality frameworks to the nitty gritty, making them easy to understand and made me eager to try each of them. This book reads like fiction, but really gets to the heart of why understanding the makeup of our own personalities can help us live the life we really want. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been curious about the different frameworks or wants to find ways to learn more about themselves.

An interesting read if you enjoy understanding personality traits and what makes up a person's actions and behaviours. Anne relates some of the traits to characters in books, resulting in wanting to read those books more closely! Anne has made great recommendations for titles to pick up, and I was hoping there would be more mention of books in this one that related to "all" the different personalities.

I am part of the launch team for Reading People and I just need to say that I loved this book! While Anne has cultivated a digital presence as Modern Mrs. Darcy and host of the What Should I Read Next? podcast, this book focused more on personality psychology, while still connecting to beloved books and characters as she discusses the different frameworks. Each chapter focused on a different personality framework, which was nice to have all of these tools discussed in one place, so you could see them in relation to each other. I have long been fascinated by personality psychology and love learning more about myself and those I love and work with through these tools, so I was already interested in the subject. The way Anne describes each framework makes it easy to understand, and I felt she was able to provide a new way of looking at some of the frameworks, while writing like a conversation with a dear friend. This book was really enjoyable!

This book definitely isn't for everyone. If you don't find personality typing remotely interesting, you're gonna wanna skip it. However, if you are into that sort of thing, this book functions kind of like a crash course for different personality frameworks, and Anne does a good job of taking an overwhelming amount of information and making it feel not only intuitive, but actionable in real life. I enjoyed some chapters more than others, but thats the beauty of a book like this; you can pick and choose what feels applicable and helpful to you. It's a quick read; Anne comes off as approachable and human, and provides many interesting and amusing anecdotes to illustrate her points. If you're a fan of her blog, or are curious about personality typing, this book is definitely for you.

I received an ARC.

This book was really eye-opening for me during a time when I'm trying to "find myself" and figure out what the heck I'm doing with my life. Early in my career, I've taken the StrengthsFinder test, but there's a lot to knowing your personality and understanding the styles of other people. You can't improve until you understand yourself. And knowing ourselves isn't a cake walk as we might expect it to be.

I'll be referencing my hard copy again and again. Great resource!

Personality tests! They’re as old as click-bait on the internet…okay, they’re hundreds of years older than that actually. In Anne Bogel’s Reading People, she goes over some of the best-known personality theory frameworks and from where they come. She also shows how understanding them, and thereby yourself, can be translated into practical application and self-improvement.

Reading People serves a great introductory book to the different frameworks. It does not really delve into any of them in depth, but instead, contains numerous reference to where you can learn more about each one should it spark your interest. She discusses the difference between extroversion and introversion, the Keirsey Temperaments, Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams and much, much more.

If you already know a lot about personality theory, then you may find this book too basic. Often, it left me wishing that it did have greater depth. However, for those who are new to this topic, this book is a wonderfully simple overview. Anne holds the reader’s hand through the confusing jumble of letters that make up types. I really appreciated that she also delves into the cognitive functions behind the Myers-Briggs 16 types, which helps a lot of people clear up their mistyping problems.

And even though I felt very familiar with much of what Anne covered, I did learn things. My favorite chapter was the one that discussed Highly Sensitive People. I had heard that term before, but had never really taken the time to look into it, only to discover that I fit the description exactly.

Anne writes her book as if she’s having a conversation with a friend, sharing personal stories from her life that illustrate the point she is trying to make. Her positive tone helps readers focus on how they can use what they learn to better themselves and their relationships. I loved her last chapter on how we’re all capable of change and growth.

Yet, at the same time, sometimes I wished she would shorten her personal story and get straight to the point of her explanation. Also, her constantly reassuring the reader that understanding personality types is a noble endeavor that will improve their life seemed redundant after a bit.

Recommendation: I would highly recommend this book for anyone absolutely new to the world of personality theories and who wants to understand their basics.

I was super honored to receive this book as part of the Reading People Book launch team.