Some unnecessary background information

I went to the Netherlands last year. Well, I went to Rotterdam. I wouldn’t say it was a fun trip, but it felt good to be back after four years. The plan was to enjoy each minute, but big-sister duties wouldn’t allow me. We did get to do a few fun stuff, but the trip didn’t even come close to the expectations that I had a few months before. I felt my heart leaving my body when I had to leave my baby at the central station. I can’t imagine what or how she must have felt. The farewell was brief but gut-wrenching. I “get” the parents now.

At Schiphol, I was told that my boarding pass had around seven dollars that I could spend. My flight was delayed for a few hours, so that was the compensation that we got. Sadly, I didn’t know it was for selected stores only. So when I confidently asked for the last blueberry muffin and passed the woman at the counter my boarding pass, she stared back in confusion. I told her that there were seven euros of compensation and that she just has to scan the ticket. She looked me straight in the eyes as if I was speaking a strange language. I quickly realized that I would have to pay for my muffin in full. When I turned to go towards the gates, I saw a book that immediately caught my eye. They were sitting right there on a table. I’m the type of lady that stares at books carefully. I read the description at the back, smell the book a bit, and then proceed to the counter to pay for the thing (with the chance that I will only read a few pages at the end). But that day, I wanted something specific. At first, I wanted a novel. A few, of which I can’t remember their names now, had caught my attention for a few seconds. Like every other place that sells books, they had a few of Coelho’s and Marquez’s. Those sounded dreadful that day. I wanted something that would teach me something new. A book that will help me cope with the fact that I would have to go back to work in a few days.

My thoughts on the book

Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson spoke to me instantly because that sounds like something that I would say, and I think we all have felt that we are surrounded by idiots sometimes. Then I saw that there was another book with a similar name too. They were by the same author, and they both sounded interesting. The only difference was the book covers. I couldn’t make a choice, so I bought both of them. I spend 32 euros on books. At first, I thought that I would only read a few pages while I was waiting for the plane, but that didn’t happen, otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this review.

So what are my overall thoughts on this book? I started reading it in August. It was easy to read, but by September, I stopped reading, not because I got bored, but because I got distracted. In January, while I waited for them to call my mother’s name in the waiting room at the hospital, I got hooked again. I read around fifty pages that day. I finished the rest of the book in like a week.

I love that the book has subheadings which made it easy to read. The titles were quite catchy too. The author is an expert on the topic of behavior types and has given a lot of workshops. I liked that he mentioned a few of his own experiences in the book. I could easily visualize each scenario that he described. The book was well-written. With his examples, I sometimes felt as if I was in a few of those conference rooms myself participating in his workshops.
Soon as I saw that each personality was color-coded, I was sold. It was handy because you can instantly get the picture, and it also makes you more intrigued to learn about the way you communicate and behave with others. You can also understand yourself better.

The quiz was nice. I didn’t answer each question correctly, but it was an extra touch that gets the reader more involved in the book and helps with the digestion of the core information that the author wants to give. I’m a history lover, so the short history lesson is kind of cool. The author leaves the reading of that specific chapter as a choice, so it won’t matter if you read it or not. It’s just additional information about the four types of behavior which have existed since the time of the Greeks.

I also like the four interviews at the end. So was there anything that I didn’t like? I’d say that I would agree with Helen a bit. At times it felt as if the book was repeating itself a bit. I understand that not everybody may see that as something negative because it gives the reader a chance to be reminded of a blue’s analytical style, or the bossy red, or the happy yellow, and the shy green, but the constant repetition may have been the reason that I put the book down in September in the first place.

The “aha moments”

There were also a few eye-openers for me while reading this book. When I read the back of the book that morning at Schiphol, I immediately thought of myself as a green or a blue. I also saw the charts that were provided on the inside of the book, and I recognized most of myself in those two colors. To my surprise, I recognized a lot of myself in the color red as I kept reading. For a moment, I felt a bit happy because I was always so quiet when I was a child, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to speak, raise my voice, and scream. Sometimes I still feel like I’m still that little girl, but this book made me realize that I had more red in me than I thought (which is not always a good thing by the way). The bizarre thing is that according to this book, the majority of people are green. A lot (I can’t remember how much exactly) is a combination of two colors, and a small group has three colors in their behavior type. I recognized myself in green, blue, and red, but when I read more and more about the yellows, especially the part in which they can sometimes be a bit unorganized, and babble about huge plans without concretizing anything, I saw myself in there too. Yes, I felt attacked a few times by this book, but I didn’t take it personally (or was that the real reason for taking a hiatus before finishing the book?)

Conclusion

I think most people will agree that they see a bit of themselves in all four colors, but some colors will be more dominant than others, in my case: green and blue. Overall an interesting book. I would recommend to everyone emotionally mature enough to open up and reflect critically on themselves as a person who makes mistakes and is still learning.