Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
EAN num: 9780449308387
ISBN number: 0449308383
Label: Fawcett Books
Manufacturer: Fawcett Books
Page Count: 206
Printing Date: 1977-06
Publishing house: Fawcett Books
Sale Popularity Level: 482463
Studio: Fawcett Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
1928. Contents: On thinking; How to estimate thought; Real thinking; Possibility of an Art of Thinking; Obsessions or Inferiority Complexes; Thought weakened by life; Living one's life; Living one's life on a higher plane; Elaboration of Data in the Mind; Creation; The root of creation. Idea; How we can get at our own ideas; Be yourself; Find yourself; and Literary production possible to all.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I wonder why I had never heard of this book before, knowing now that it has so successfully and artistically handled the most important ability of mankind: the ability to think! Throughout the course of the book, Dimnet not only convinces the readers of their ability to learn how to think better, but also helps them with the process. With excellent examples and pursuasive arguments, the book sets the mind to action.
I think people should know more about the existence of such a great work.
Rated by buyers -
...and that says it all. As one other reviewer, I very first read this book in the early 60's. I still have my frayed, tattered, underlined, spine-taped, and annotated paperback edition which I bought for less than a dollar thru a book program at my high school. It was the best purchase of my young life. I have read and re-read this book, in whole and in parts for over 40 years.
Rated by buyers -
When I very first read this book, back about the time I started college in the 60's, it was still in print. I bought copy after copy, underlining and marking until the book was overmarked and I needed a new one, which I would then buy and start marking anew. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that I would hardly be the person I am or anything like it without this book and the influence that it's had on me. One example: the power of altruism (any high ideal) actually lived in action. (Living One's Life on a Higher Plane: Moral Elevation a condition of high thinking.) Who would have thought that to sacrifice for a goal higher than one's self helps one to think? And yet, I have found from experience that it does. The richness and practicality of this book are amazing. Single phrases or sentences have echoed and re-echoed in thought for decades--just indeed as recommended by the author as just one way of richening one's thought. If Dimnet quotes it, I don't remember it, but "to thine own self be true" (source?) might be one way of summing up the whole book. But not as a catchy aphorism--rather as a whole approach to thought and life studded with so many gems of practical advice and wisdom that one has a constant tendency to start quoting the book verbatim. Here's one that I've always loved (approximate): "Know what you want! say the newspapers, we have it ready for you! Wise counsel indeed, for the whole art of thinking is in it." It would be easy to write a whole book on that one piece of advice. Another: to think about something, populate your mind with favorable images and keep them there awhile. (Sound cryptic or superficial?: read the book; it's not.) There are dozens, scores more. Perhaps for many people the single most important thing to learn is that thinking can be learned, that it is an art like any other with definite rules and dos and don'ts. Read this book. If you're not a barbarian, you'll be glad you did.
Rated by buyers -
I guess everyone has a story about how they came across "The Art of Thinking," by Dimnet. For me, I found it on a friend's bookshelf a dozen or so years ago. I have seen other books similar to this (and much larger and more "hip") in used bookstores. Such books are pure fluf compared to the jewel Dimnet produced in this very small book. It presents the author's ideas on the nature of true creativity in any given field and how to unclutter your mind to be able to get at your own thoughts. But the book goes well beyond this to be a showcase of writing and eloquence. Here is Dimnet, a Frenchman and a Latin scholar, and, of course, an excellent writer of English who, conveniently for us, directs his comments to Americans. To give a hint of more of the contents: All children under the age of nine are poets and philosophers. When they notice their elders, they (all, without almost a single exception) begin to imitate them. In this one action is lost all their brilliance; and for most people, they never get back to what fired up their minds as children. Also, he says, being forced to fill a blank paper with an essay, when one has nothing to say, is one of the most powerful experiences school-age children go through, which forever turns them off to writing, and actually helps to kill their ability to think. This book is worth more than just a read-through.
Rated by buyers -
I very first found this book over 20 years ago, and make it a practice to re-read it every few years. It starts as a comparison between American and French education systems, but cleverly guides the reader down an irreversible and compelling path of intellectual criticism into the "land" of intellectual integrity. In essence it tells you to "think your own thoughts" and "be aware of the flimsy foundation upon which your knowledge/belief system is based." In a world cluttered with data, this book guides us towards the essentials. (Good to be read in concert with "The Little Prince" by Saint-Exupery)
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