Book Review: Don't Ask Stupid Questions

For as much as I read, I really haven't been very good about giving you all my take on what I think might be worth your time to check out. I just added a book review category for you and will make an effort to let you know when I discover books that may be worth your while.

The honor of my first book review goes to Tim Brownson.  Tim is a life coach who contacted me recently asking me to check out Don't Ask Stupid Questions: There Are No Stupid Questions. My first instinct was to hit delete because I swore I would never accept another poorly written book to review again, I don't care how free it is. The only thing that stopped me was Tim's humor and his promise that the book functions exceedlingly well as a doorstop in the worst case scenario. 

Who couldn't use an extra doorstop?

I found myself engaged with the book despite a couple drawbacks. For those readers here among you who are very well read and discerning (and many of you are) let me tell you plainly what I think you may have to overlook and why I like this book anyway and agreed to recommend it. 

1)  This book takes you through the basics. For this reason, some of you personal development veterans may feel beyond it and prefer to jump into meatier reads.  For those of you just starting to focus on personal development issues and needing a good foundational book that is easy to read and will give you something of value even in short reading bursts, this is worth picking up.

HOWEVER, even for you veterans, there is something to be said for the basics.  The nice thing about Tim's book is that it is comprised of a plethora of "quick hit" chapters. Each section is 2-4 pages with a little quote, a quick story, a prompt and a question.  Tim, half-jokingly writes that he would be happy to see this book make it into a few bathrooms.  Kidding aside, it's a good book for that and I mean that in the best possible way.  You know, sometimes you just need a little nudge, one question to shift your perspective just enough to get your mind to stop chasing itself in circles.  I see one way to use this book is to grab it when you are facing a challenge or needing to make a decision, open it at random, read a page, grab the question and see where it takes you with your dilemma. Kind of a "just in time" coaching tool.  Some of you pull a Tarot card for a prompt, some of you may find it more beneficial to pull one of Tim's questions.  Sometimes the simplest questions can be the most profound.

I just opened at random to one that asks, "What does news add to your life?"  Well, it just so happens that the news is all about the economy tanking and I found myself getting anxious about my SEP last night, wondering if all my hard earned self-employment money will actually be there for my retirement since I don't have a pension and can't count on social security to be there for me.  Is it helping me or hurting me to listen to financial news and is there something I should be doing with that information right now? Is this something to ride out or something that will require me to take action to protect myself?  How do I handle these ripples of anxiety about that?  Do I need to listen to more news about this or less?  Is it helping me or hurting me and how much is fact and how much is sensationalized media? What impact does the election have on this coverage?  So you see, this is a big question that I grabbed at random.  Great journal prompt for those of you looking for journal prompts.

In fact, Tim, maybe you should think of a deck of Stupid Question cards...

2)  Tim is funny and he knows his weaknesses. I just wish he would have taken more responsibility for them. He openly admits in the beginning of the book that we will have to overlook his run-on sentences and grammar.  I didn't see grammar being a problem but really, a good editor would have been worth the investment.  I appreciate Tim's light and self-depreciating approach. Hey, the offer to use the book as a doorstop got me to read it, right?  But sometimes the cute humor factor gets to be a bit heavy handed and at times overwhelms the point of the book which is to get the reader focusing on their own thought process.  The chapters are short so it doesn't get too out of hand and generally I find him funny despite this flaw but he can get in his own way sometimes. Reminds me of myself back in the day when I used to go on and on in funny rants. A little of that can go a long way. As I said, a good editor would have really made this shine.  Peter Stern Peter Stern Peter Stern.

Here's what I recommend, head to his blog and see if you vibe with him. If you do, and you like his humor and general approach and want some really nice quick hit journal prompts and thought exercises that you can grab as you need them without having to feel like you have one more massive book on your ever growing reading list this could fit the bill for you. 

Comments

[Peter]

Wow, a triple mention! I am humbled.