Book Review: Self Esteem Bible by Gael Lindenfield

This is a book review of “Self Esteem Bible” by Gael Lindenfield. This is a good book for those who need to boost their confidence and self-esteem. It may benefit both those who are interested in “quick fixes” and those who are students of the Law of Attraction.

PART 1: THE BOOK

In this book review I am reviewing my copy of the Self Esteem Bible, by Gael Lindenfield.

This book is published by Thorsons Element, which is an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

It was first published in 2004 (according to the copyright page), and the copyright year is also 2004. So I am assuming that my copy is that same first edition, as it is shown here (click image to enlarge):

And this is confirmed after a search on Amazon.com: it says that the book with ISBN 0007179553 is a “UK ed. edition”, and that it was published on May 1, 2004.

About the Book

The Self Esteem Bible is a self-help type of book, for people with low self esteem, or for those who already have high self-esteem, but wants more of it.

It is very “hands-on” and “direct” type of book. It is clearly meant to be very practical, so that the reader easily can understand what is recommended, and what is not recommended.

Just to be clear: This is not an academic book, or a highly technical manual with difficult language. This is a book for the average person.

And this is also not a Law of Attraction book, but a book with simple techniques and straight-forward practices that most people can relate to, and not get “spooked” about (in a metaphysical sense). So in this book there is no talk about any mysterious “Inner Being” or “Source” or “The Vortex”, etc.

The Parts of the Book

The book is divided into three main parts: the front matter (8 pages); the core text (375 pages); and the additional page at the end (1 page). So all in all, 384 pages.

The front matter consists of a title page, a copyright page, and a short dedication. Then comes a one-page Contents, and a three-page Introduction.

The core text of the book is divided into four parts (pp. 1-375), and these I describe below.

The back matter consists of a single page of contact information, for those readers who want to reach out to Gael Lindenfield.

There are no illustrations, diagrams, graphs, or photographs in the main text of the book. There are, however, some small line drawings (figures) on the four introduction pages for each of the four parts of the book.

The Four Inner Parts

Each page in all the four parts has the same layout, with a “tip” name and number as a header, on the top of the page, and then some text under it.

The overall idea of the book is to provide 365 ideas of how to build confidence and self-esteem.

Therefore, the layout it such that there is one idea on each page. And that idea, on average, does not cover more than half the page with text.

The four parts in this book are as follows:

1. Health. It’s hard to keep up one’s self-esteem when tired or sick, so the first step is to return to health (pp. 1-50).

2. Personal Development. How to improve your self-esteem in areas such as relationships, career, etc. (pp. 51-197).

3. Relationships. How to build and maintain positive relationships (pp. 199-269).

4. Work. How to deal with various workplace situations, how to transition to another job, etc. (pp. 271-375).

The Author

According to the back cover of Self Esteem Bible, Gael Lindenfield is “one of UK’s leading personal development trainers and a highly respected psychotherapist.” She is the author of ten international bestsellers, including such titles as Self-Esteem, Super Confidence, The Positive Woman, and Emotional Confidence.

PART 2: THE REVIEW

Physical Format

My copy of the 2004 paperback edition is approximately 5 x 7.70 inches (12.8 x 19.6 cm). And it’s approximately 0.80 inches (2.1 cm) thick.

The format itself (not considering its weight) is good, but not perfect. It is portable, but, for me, it’s a little too thick. I prefer the more compact dimensions of Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, which is approximately 200 pages “lighter”.

Note that this title is nowadays also available in Kindle format. I have not seen it available in any audio format yet.

Paper, Printing, and Binding Quality

The type of paper in this book is some variety of “mass market pocket book” paper quality. So when I try to draw a straight line to form the number “1” with my LAMY fountain pen, it bleeds considerably.

So if you would like to scribble down some notes in the margin, a better way to do it would be to use either a pencil or some BIC ballpoint pen or something like that.

The printing quality is all right, and the binding too. The text is relatively crisp and clear, and the binding still holds after all these years.

Layout, Design, and Typography

There is little to be said about the design aspects of this book.

First of all, I think the cover page is really expertly done, both in terms of typography, colors, layout, and the message that it sends. It’s clean, simple, and easy to read and understand.

The back cover is less perfect. I don’t think that it is a wise design decision to use the same typeface that is used on the cover page, for it doesn’t really work in smaller font sizes. Display fonts is one thing, and text fonts are another, as any professional typographer should know.

As for the page design in the core text (pages 1-375), the layout is such that there is one tip per page. This means that, on average, the pages only are half-filled with text, and the rest is white space.

But that is not a negative thing. In fact, it is very positive (even if it perhaps wasn’t the intention of the publisher). For that space can be used as a notebook, where one can write comments about how good that particular tip or method is, and ways to improve it, etc.

So I think it was a very wise layout decision to keep the pages “airy”.

Basic Content

The basic textual content is, I think, good. The “selling text” on the back cover works well, in terms of arousing interest in buying the book.

And I think a buyer of that book will be pretty happy with it, in terms of providing *lots* of tips for how one can improve one’s self-esteem. So there’s definitely a “bang-for-the-buck” feeling here, in relation to the quantity of advice.

Even so, I’m not so sure that all of these tips are helpful to everyone. So I would estimate that its real “promise-to-delivery” ratio is about 70% or so.

Why only 70%? One reason is because many of her tips contradict principles in the Law of Attraction. So even if “innocent” people (i.e., those who have never heard of the Law of Attraction) may find the suggestions “doable” or “reasonable” or “logical”, that does not mean that these tips necessarily will solve their problems.

Note, however, that there are also many good tips in this book, that are compatible with the Law of Attraction. The trouble is just that the uninitiated person doesn’t know which is which: Is Tip #154 all right, but not Tip #342? Or is it the other way around?

So to “extract” the most from this book, one should be a “serious” student of the Law of Attraction. Then it is easy to see which tips will work, and which will not.

Writing Style

The book is very nicely written. Gael Lindenfield writes in a very simple and clear style, and it is very easy to read. This is in harmony with the “hands-on” nature of this typical self-help book.

Usefulness

I think this book can be useful for many people.

One audience is “ordinary” persons who want a “quick way” to help them overcome various situations in their daily lives.

But the caveat here is this: Since, in my view, at least 30% of the tips are not compatible with the Law of Attraction principles, I expect those tips to not work in real life. Or if they work, they work with a minimal effect.

This may not be a problem if the reader has good internal intuition (by grace of their Inner Being). For then, by that intuition, they will be able to choose those methods that will work, anyway.

However, most people will probably not have such intuition. Thus, for them it may be a gamble, to some extent.

But there is also the placebo effect. So if they truly believe that the method will work, it may work out favorably anyway, even if they don’t follow the “rules” of the tip to the letter (or, perhaps, simply because they are not following it to the letter, if it’s one of the tips in the 30% category).

In any case, in order to get the most out of this book, one should really know the basic principles of the Law of Attraction. Then one can easily select the things that will work. And then one can modify those things that don’t work, so that also they will work.

RATINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This is a nice book with 365 tips to build one’s confidence and self-esteem.

This may attract “ordinary” people (i.e. those who are not students of the Law of Attraction), and, if only they select the “right” tips, and follow the text in the tip, they will most probably build their confidence and self-esteem nicely.

But if they select the “wrong” tip (i.e. one of the 30% of the tips that, in my estimation, will not build their self-esteem), then there may be no effect at all, or, worse, a negative effect.

So everything depends on selecting the right tips to work with. And hopefully some people will be in a good enough emotional state that they can hear their Inner Being’s recommendation as an intuition to select, or skip, a certain tip.

For an advanced student of the Law of Attraction, however, this is undoubtedly a very good book. For such a student need not worry about selecting the wrong tip. He or she can immediately evaluate, by just reading the text in the tip, whether it would be advantageous or not to practice it.

So this book may be good for many audiences, but especially so for eager and excited students of the wonderful Law of Attraction.

Chris Bocay

EDITION DETAILS

Title: Self Esteem Bible: Build Your Confidence Day by Day
Author: Gael Lindenfield
Publisher: Thorsons Element (HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd)
Year (stated on copyright page): “2004”
Edition: First
Binding: Paperback
Pages: viii + 375 + i
ISBN-10 (a): 0-00-717955-3
ISBN-10 (b): 0007179553
ISBN-13 (a): 978-0007179558
ISBN-13 (b): 9780007179558

Links to This Edition

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