Did you like the "Myth I Believed" feature of the book?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2018 Book of the Month, "And Then I Met Margaret" by Rob White
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E G Suth
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Re: Did you like the "Myth I Believed" feature of the book?

Post by E G Suth »

CambaReviewer wrote: 13 Feb 2018, 06:40 I liked it very much. It made me keen to read and find out what changed about the myth and why. Ingenious!!
Yeah I totally agree. I thought it summed up each chapter at its message very well and added some much needed (in my opinion) structure to the book. It also helped me to think about if I have fallen prey to these harmful myths and if I should change my way of thinking as a result.
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Post by Nelsy Mtsweni »

The author's great participation in the book makes one feel as though he/she is discussing the book with the author himself. The book was well-written, and very educative. One is exposed to the myth, then soon to the lesson. That is very good.
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Post by Katiemhardy813 »

It didn't bother me like I was afraid it might on first glance. I liked how it added structure to the book, and allowed me to bounce my own takeaways off of what else might have been gleaned. Didn't bother me at all if what I took away was different from the author's lesson.
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Post by mnmueller »

I think the "Myth I Believed" feature was a interesting idea. It seems to me that Mr. White meant to to use it as a guide so that the reader knew what he was trying to convey with his story. Sometimes this was successful, but more often than not I found putting the statement before the section prejudiced my idea of what would be in the lesson. With a few of the lessons I had a good idea of how it would turn out, which left me feeling dissatisfied. For other sections I found it difficult to understand exactly how the myth tied into it, which made the entire section difficult to understand.

I think just stating the myth and the lesson at the end of the section would have worked better for me. With this format, I would have the flexibility to draw my own conclusions from each section. I would probably still have trouble connecting the myth to some sections, but I wouldn't be going into each section expecting something in particular. I feel this would especially help the later sections of the book, where many sections deal with situations that would benefit more from going in with an open mind.

For example, Chapter Fourteen: Life in the Fast Lane. His myth:
Sometimes insisting you know is the speed lane to victory.
You can take away several possible ideas from this experience and the way Mr. White relays it. He himself relates several different conclusions he came up with in the chapter, some of which I hadn't thought of until he mentioned them. I felt putting the emphasis on how ego can get in the way of the quickest path to accomplishing your goal overshadowed the other lessons you can take away from the experience. If he had put the myth only at the end, I would have had the opportunity to create my own ideas, and consider the ideas he brought up in the chapter, without trying to fit them in the context of his myth.

It comes down to the fact that when I read I don't want to feel constrained by what I'm supposed to get out of a story.
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Post by Annogor »

I really liked the myth i brlieved feature, not only did it help in keeping me interested, it also is a very useful for getting his point accross.
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Post by Insomniac07 »

I loved it. It made me play closer attention to the stories. It also provided structure to the book.
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Post by freakkshowx »

I'm a little bit conflicted, because as a reviewer, the strong structure was appreciated, but as a regular reader, I feel like it chopped up the book into pieces that were too tiny for me, because the book was already quite short. I think it would have been more effective if each story was a few pages longer at least, because I would have had time to forget the myth to focus on at the beginning and actually have needed the ending reminder.
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Post by ktom »

I am a big fan of the author sharing his lessons with us. I love learning from other people, and even if our views don't line up, I like hearing what he learned and why. Plus, it helps my brain evolve lol!
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Post by ASB_1 »

Definitely, that was the best part of this book. I really hate it when the author leaves you in a cliffhanger and in this case the author didn’t do that for which I’m thankful to him.
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Post by Emmanae »

I feel like it helped me take the book piece by piece rather than some I feel I need to rush through. Definitely a fan.
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Post by va2016 »

I had a chance to sample the book. I did like the "Myth I believed"
feature as it is narrated in the book. It provides an organized
way of presenting the author's thoughts, while describing each of
the lessons that he learnt. It is an important component for
the "transformation lessons" that the author went through.
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Post by Haute_Coffee »

I liked it because it made me feel I could relate more to the author. Everyone believes some myths in their lives, however they may have been formed. Reading about his made me feel that he understood that readers would have prejudices in their thoughts that were standing in their way, and that it was ok because they could be changed and overcome.

Also, I have read some self-help books where the author is kind of preachy and seems to have it all together, as if they were born with all the answers. That can be off-putting, but I felt that this was much more relatable.
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Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

It's an amazing concept to be quite honest. It does add up to the value of the book for me personally because we get an insight on the lessons that are up coming.
"The abstract sensation of living a lifestyle that hasn't been fully understood."
- The epitome of taste in living disgrace.
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Post by Mekkinism »

To me, I think this is one of the primary tensions between the book-as-self-help-guide and the book-as-memoir. As a self help guide, the myths were crucial. They provided structure, and they make it easy to come back to the chapters with the life lessons that may be most applicable to you at the time. As a memoir though, I think it takes away from the poignancy and impact. At times it made me feel like I was being led by the nose. Part of the joy of reading a memoir is asking yourself, out of a lifetime of stories and experiences, why did the author choose to include these?
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Post by SparklesonPages »

I didn't necessarily agree with the author's lesson each time, but it was a great addition that made the book more interesting.
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