hannchilada's review against another edition
5.0
I would give this book 4.5 stars. The title and blurb give the idea it speaks about more general societal awkwardness, when in reality about 1/4 to 1/3 of the book is about a specific kind of person. That being said, what the author actually sets out to explain and motivate he does fully and quite well. I appreciated the balance between colloquial stories and statistics, as well as the general promotion of balance in life he advocated. I especially enjoyed this book’s positive tone. I think my biggest critique is the way the final chapters began to feel very repetitive, as often happens in nonfiction books.
lauryl's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.5
This book sounded like it would be fun and potentially useful, but it was mostly just anecdotes from the author’s childhood. It was fine and had some interesting social science studies, but not sure it lived up to the promise of the title and description.
themtj's review against another edition
5.0
Not sure this actually warrants a 5 star review, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I laughed out loud, I occasionally related, found his research interesting, and conclusions to be reasonable. Ty has essentially invented a category for personality classification with criteria and research. He does not excuse awkwardness nor does he insist that it has a simple solution. He has fun with it while trying to learn how to understand people. Empathy and acceptance are the underlying principles to his work.
80ng5's review against another edition
4.0
Saying it was revelatory is an understatement, not only did i learn new things about myself but I also learnt new things about why my past relationships penned out the way they did. It's ability to not place awkwardness as an ultimate trait to have, but at the same time elevate it from its usual condenmnation and neutralise it as one just as valuable as the others is fantastic.
melhara's review against another edition
3.0
I’m a very awkward person, so naturally, I felt like I should read up on the subject (although my personal philosophy is: It only feels awkward if you think it's awkward. It's a form of denial that I've mastered over the years).
To be honest though, I think the reason why I’m such an awkward person is because I don’t know how to engage in ‘small talk’. So I suppose the ‘cure’ to my awkwardness would be learning how to initiate small talk and maintain a conversation...
I felt that [b:Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome|30317414|Awkward The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome|Ty Tashiro|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1485273206s/30317414.jpg|50807688] did not include enough “science” (research and studies) on awkwardness and contained too many anecdotes about Ty’s experience as an awkward child. This book also focused a lot more on differentiating between people who are socially fluent and those who are socially awkward.
There were some interesting parts - for example the difference between awkward and aspergers (I would have liked to read more about that topic) and that learning manners can help improve social fluency and curb awkwardness (which makes a lot of sense - having manners means knowing the right way to react and prevent an awkward reaction). There was also an entire chapter on how dating and sex are awkward. I can definitely relate to that!
I felt like a lot of the topics raised were skimmed over and I would have preferred to read a more in-depth analysis on the “science of awkwardness”. But overall, everything was easy to understand, entertaining at times, and made sense. Also, Ty’s reasoning for awkwardness being “awesome” was… not very compelling. I think should book should actually be renamed to Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Normal.
To be honest though, I think the reason why I’m such an awkward person is because I don’t know how to engage in ‘small talk’. So I suppose the ‘cure’ to my awkwardness would be learning how to initiate small talk and maintain a conversation...
I felt that [b:Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome|30317414|Awkward The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome|Ty Tashiro|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1485273206s/30317414.jpg|50807688] did not include enough “science” (research and studies) on awkwardness and contained too many anecdotes about Ty’s experience as an awkward child. This book also focused a lot more on differentiating between people who are socially fluent and those who are socially awkward.
There were some interesting parts - for example the difference between awkward and aspergers (I would have liked to read more about that topic) and that learning manners can help improve social fluency and curb awkwardness (which makes a lot of sense - having manners means knowing the right way to react and prevent an awkward reaction). There was also an entire chapter on how dating and sex are awkward. I can definitely relate to that!
I felt like a lot of the topics raised were skimmed over and I would have preferred to read a more in-depth analysis on the “science of awkwardness”. But overall, everything was easy to understand, entertaining at times, and made sense. Also, Ty’s reasoning for awkwardness being “awesome” was… not very compelling. I think should book should actually be renamed to Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Normal.
octygon's review against another edition
4.0
Really glad I read this and highly recommend it to anyone who feels awkward or knows someone who is awkward. It doesn't go into tremendous depth, but it was still enough to be interesting and informative. The author does seem to repeat himself a bit, which likely was more noticeable to me because I listened to this as an audiobook. Had I been reading it on paper, I probably would have skimmed past repetitive stuff pretty quickly.