This Book Will Make You Feel Good about Being an Introvert

One out of every three people you know share something in common. I am one of the people in question, and you might be as well. At the very least, you are probably raising, managing, married to or coupled with one of us. We often pass undetected because some of us pretend to be what we are not.

I am speaking of course about introverts, something I consider myself to be, as does author Susan Cain. Her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, is a journey of self-discovery for an introvert, which is exactly the kind of thing an introvert would like in book form.

She first explains how extroversion became our cultural ideal. This has had significant ramifications on our society and Cain’s research unpacks them. Then, in the second part of the book, she raises the question of whether introversion is the product of nurture or nature (or a mixture of both). This leads to an examination of whether all cultures have an extrovert ideal. The final part of the book offers some insights to loving, living, and working as an introvert in an extroverted world.

This book will certainly appeal to introverts (for whom books aren’t a hard sell anyway). But anybody interested in understanding people better should give it a read. Though there is a sense in which Cain is writing to introverts, extroverts will benefit from understanding that there is no need to “convert” introverts. We are fine just the way we are. We have our own strengths that go with our temperament, and being an extrovert does not make us more “normal.” Cain’s book will help readers explain why that is. For introverts, it will be a breath of fresh air and maybe help to sooth the guilt that goes with turning down a dinner invitation in favor of reading a book like this.

Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. New York: Broadway Books. 368 pp. Paperback, $16.00 (or much cheaper right now on Kindle).