Kathleen Keating (1)

I bought this book for 50 cents on a garage sale because I thought it was cute and stupid.

The book turned out to be pretty insightful, actually. This may be because I'm really nonphysical and dislike physical contact and perhaps exactly who this book is designed for.

I had skimmed through the various cute-bear diagrams of different hugging techniques and assumed the book was hippy crap. On a closer read, it turns out that each hugging 'form' is described with both suggested situations and, this being perhaps the part that remains questionable, the communication that each hug tends to bring across.

But the crux here is that the book is attempting to teach you to think about communication when hugging. That in itself is, even if not completely compelling, rather admirable. I tend not to trust self-help books and consider them full of emotional froth, but this one seemed rather sober despite its subject matter.

It's mostly geared towards the hugger best helping the huggee. It talks a bit about how one can't hug genuinely if they themselves have mixed intentions. It actually does a nice job telling you how to modify the act for people you don't know well or for those shy or averse to physical contact.

But what if you are the person who is shy or averse? What if you are the one attempting to initiate the hug not to heal another but to strengthen a relation? This book really isn't about that, but maybe on another reading I'll find some insight there as well.… (altro)

Je suis vraiment qu'une grosse madeleine. Ma copine dirait "gros nounours" et ça tombe bien, parce que ce livre est rempli de petit nounours. Alors voilà, un petit livret avec des nounours toucâlins, ben moi ça me fait quelque chose. Ben ouais. Alors j'ai lu ce petit livret en une vingtaine de minutes. Il dit pourquoi il faut faire des câlins et décrit les types de câlins. Le tout de manière très amusante.
Y'a quand même une ou deux phrases qui m'ont dérangé, des phrases un peu "conservatrices" sur la famille, mais je chipote. C'est vraiment chouette et je me sentais tout chose en le finissant. Un vrai "feel good book".… (altro)