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caralikesbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
opentopersuasion's review against another edition
5.0
Fun little book containing words of wisdom, snippets and viewpoints from a very smart guy. He sounds really funny and I would have loved to take one of his improv classes.
The way he recommends doing conferences is genius. It's so true that conferences are often full of people who all share the same passion, but who unfortunately only get to listen to one person speak instead of use that time to make connections. I love the idea of conferences as opportunities to be social and let everyone talk in small groups instead.
He also had some great points on neighborhood activism, and how to speak up when something is really bothering you, but also how to compromise with the businesses and others you share your neighborhood with.
The ideas for games were also great, and I will probably incorporate a few of them with friends. Charades never sounded so fun.
The way he recommends doing conferences is genius. It's so true that conferences are often full of people who all share the same passion, but who unfortunately only get to listen to one person speak instead of use that time to make connections. I love the idea of conferences as opportunities to be social and let everyone talk in small groups instead.
He also had some great points on neighborhood activism, and how to speak up when something is really bothering you, but also how to compromise with the businesses and others you share your neighborhood with.
The ideas for games were also great, and I will probably incorporate a few of them with friends. Charades never sounded so fun.
ms_castalian's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.75
darling_beige's review against another edition
I literally could not be bothered anymore. This was not what I wanted. The only essay I truly enjoyed was the very first one and that was only one page. Unless you’re a drama teacher this book is extremely monotonous. It’s advertised as a self help book for people who don’t want to read self help. There was not an ounce of self help in here. The only thing that was consistent throughout this was the amount of damn essays about how to run charade classes. I don’t care. I didn’t like drama class. I don’t want to learn how to be good at charades. Stop.
cmadrenas's review against another edition
3.0
Cutesy, twee, enjoyable enough. Full of really good communication excercises if you have to do icebreakers at your job... A bit awful at times, though (for instance, “a kind of racism that was invisible to all of us”?!?). I wouldn’t recommend it to average adults because it has the Miranda July curse of feeling like a young-white-rich-kids-only club where for reasons you just can’t put your finger on you feel like you don’t belong, while reading it. But I think it’d be a decent graduation gift for a high schooler, and I’d recommend it to highschool teachers, too. With the reminder to be really, really critical and take absolutely nothing seriously.
janiswong's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
A fun book to read that I would describe as little observations. Snippets of food for thought that also encouraged me to think a bit more about my daily life. My favourite snippets were How to improvise and how not to improvise, A decision is a thing you make, Going to parties, Asking a good question, Storytelling is not the same thing as converstation, and Making the city more fun for you and your privileged friends isn't a super-noble political goal
lucasmiller's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't read this book in a single sitting. It has sat on my shelf about half read for over a year. I picked it up again yesterday, and thought I'd read a few pages. After reading about 50 pages, I figured I should go ahead and get down to the end.
I spent about 15 minutes before reading the last 25 pages reading 2 star Goodreads' reviews of this book. I share some of the main frustrations with the book that the majority of these reviews express, but I think they tend to be overstated. The whole twee, adorkable complaint seems mean-spirited and exaggerated. The earnestness of the book can be cloying, but I think it is genuine.
I'm interested in the aspects of conflict resolution and negotiation that the author deals with. I believe connecting negotiation to games, improvisation, and conferences is smart and interesting. Often the chapters would drift and end right as I was starting to become interested.
There is a unthinking belief in analytical, quantitative facts that is something that I have developed as a personal pet peeve. I'm all for the scientific method and facts, but when facts and science are treated self evidently true and unquestionable they become the exact same type of superstition that the author is decrying.
I really believe the conversations between Misha Glouberman and Shelia Heti were better than the essays they produced.
My job assigns a book for all of the employees and teachers to read over the summer. During workshops in early August after a few hours of meetings and a surprisingly good lunch buffet everyone gets into randomly assigned groups and have to talk about the book at hand. I've only done this twice, and the first book was atrocious self-help pop psychology of which I read the first chapter and politely deferred to the other members of my group. The second book had extended musings on the legacy of Kant and most of my group complained about how the book was too difficult to read over summer vacation. I think that this book, or perhaps the five star version of this book (I do not claim to know how to make it better, I liked it, but it felt slight) would be perfectly in between those two poles. Maybe I'll force this slim volume on a colleague. We can wear suits and not smoke, and shout in an empty auditorium.
I spent about 15 minutes before reading the last 25 pages reading 2 star Goodreads' reviews of this book. I share some of the main frustrations with the book that the majority of these reviews express, but I think they tend to be overstated. The whole twee, adorkable complaint seems mean-spirited and exaggerated. The earnestness of the book can be cloying, but I think it is genuine.
I'm interested in the aspects of conflict resolution and negotiation that the author deals with. I believe connecting negotiation to games, improvisation, and conferences is smart and interesting. Often the chapters would drift and end right as I was starting to become interested.
There is a unthinking belief in analytical, quantitative facts that is something that I have developed as a personal pet peeve. I'm all for the scientific method and facts, but when facts and science are treated self evidently true and unquestionable they become the exact same type of superstition that the author is decrying.
I really believe the conversations between Misha Glouberman and Shelia Heti were better than the essays they produced.
My job assigns a book for all of the employees and teachers to read over the summer. During workshops in early August after a few hours of meetings and a surprisingly good lunch buffet everyone gets into randomly assigned groups and have to talk about the book at hand. I've only done this twice, and the first book was atrocious self-help pop psychology of which I read the first chapter and politely deferred to the other members of my group. The second book had extended musings on the legacy of Kant and most of my group complained about how the book was too difficult to read over summer vacation. I think that this book, or perhaps the five star version of this book (I do not claim to know how to make it better, I liked it, but it felt slight) would be perfectly in between those two poles. Maybe I'll force this slim volume on a colleague. We can wear suits and not smoke, and shout in an empty auditorium.
litsirk's review against another edition
3.0
His ideas about improv and games (especially charades) make me think about other stuff in my own life, like just how to live life in general. Like: "To learn to play charades, you have to learn to enjoy yourself while trying to communicate with people who don't understand you and don't know what you know."
3.5, or maybe 3.275. Yep.
3.5, or maybe 3.275. Yep.