Books I read in 2013
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
15th December 2013
The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
2nd December 2013
The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland
21st November 2013
The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck
24th October 2013
The British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge
29th September 2013
Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain by Roger Deakin
25th September 2013
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
5th September 2013
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton
13th August 2013
Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach by Jean Sprackland
3rd August 2013
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
3rd August 2013
Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
21st July 2013
The Tower by Simon Clarke
23rd June 2013
House of Holes by Nicholson Baker
20th June 2013
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
17th June 2013
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
29th May 2013
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
23rd May 2013
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
13th May 2013
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
9th May 2013
The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters
3rd May 2013
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
18th April 2013
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
7th April 2013
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler
5th April 2013
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6th March 2013
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
23rd February 2013
Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia by Chris Stewart
16th February 2013
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
6th February 2013
Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Kalder
1st February 2013
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
25th January 2013
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
16th January 2013
What's Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don't Always Reach Their Potential and How You Can by Robert Kelsey
8th January 2013
Robert Kelsey's book repackages what he considers to be the best advice gleaned from other self-help texts. Kelsey is careful to acknowledge his sources but reframes them through his own experiences as someone with a high fear of failure (abbreviated as "high FF", and as opposed to someone with "high achievement motivation" or "high AM"). Kelsey believes that people like himself with high FF are innately wired to react to their failures (and ironically even their successes) in more negative ways than the high AM-types (who are more to treat their failures as lessons to be learned rather than as reflections of their own sense of personal worth).
Given that Kelsey draws extensively on existing literature, much of the advice in the core of the book can be found elsewhere (I was reminded in particular of ideas also presented in The Thinking Person's Guide to Happiness). However he places emphasis on particular aspects which he feels are most helpful to combat the "high FF" perspective, and by suggesting that as this perspective is an innate characteristic that cannot be "unlearned" he focuses more on mitigating its negative aspects and working with its positive ones.
Later chapters in the book are focused specifically on different aspects of working life, reflecting the author's own background in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur. However the core advice in the book is arguably applicable to life in general: know what your goals are (and how realistic they might be, an area where high FF's often fail) and develop strategies based on your values, strengths and weaknesses to work towards achieving them.
Kelsey writes well and personally I always find it interesting to see a new take on these ideas, often revealing insights that I'd missed from other sources. In this case I'm reminded of the line from Kipling's famous poem, about success and failure and "treating those two impostors just the same", and as someone who I think suffers from the high-FF mindset I found "What's Stopping You?" both an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.