Body Language

by James Borg

Body Language is the winner of the Non-fiction Travel Read 2009, BAA Heathrow Travel Product Awards - More than 23,000 votes were cast in a month-long nominations period, with votes coming in from across the world.   Your body language is on display almost all of the time…so isn’t it important you know what signal you’re sending? Discover how to use your body language to your advantage and at the same time learn how to decipher other people’s signals. Research shows that up to 90% of communication is transmitted non-verbally and that the most successful people - in all walks of life - are intuitive in deciphering these signals. We may think we know how to use this ‘silent’ language but how many of us can actually use it well? Body Language will help • gain a deeper understanding of other people so you can ‘read’ their minds • know what non-verbal signals you may be giving out to others and how to use this to communicate and gain the response you want • notice if what someone says is completely at odds with what they are thinking or feeling • learn how your ‘extremities’ can give you away (despite what’s coming out of your mouth). • make a better impression in your social and work life by being aware of your ‘bodytalk’ (and that of others)...and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Business consultant and psychological coach, James Borg, specialises in the areas of interpersonal skills, management and business development. His career spans the spectrum of advertising, sales, marketing and journalism, He conducts regular workshops on persuasion; how to develop a super memory; and ‘positive psychology’.

James Borg became interested in magic and 'mind-reading' at the age of 9 and subsequently was - a few years later - admitted as one of the youngest-ever members of the Magic Circle. In his book Persuasion he reveals that there is a lot we can learn from magician's tricks to help us gain persuasive powers to use in work and life.

After graduating in London, with degrees in both economics and psychology, James Borg had a successful career in advertising, sales, marketing and journalism. This equipped him well for his current role as a work psychologist, business consultant and trainer in persuasion techniques, interpersonal skills and memory improvement. With his fascination for the human mind from a young age (he was admitted as one of the youngest ever members of The Magic Circle after his demonstration of 'mind-reading' and memory feats) he performed occasionally with a routine known as 'The mind and magic of James Borg'. Tuning in to other people's thoughts - and being aware of our own - is his prescription for success in all aspects of life. He's often invited on BBC radio and was selected as a Harvard Business Review author for May 2009.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borg's book is a typical entry in the field of body language. It's badly written and badly illustrated, with many factual errors throughout. If you took the advice in the book you would become more ill-informed about other people than you are now. More than that, the whole approach is wrong. So many body language books like this one try to list gestures as if you could decode them one by one and understand what someone else is thinking as a result. But body language is always behavior in context. You have to know the individual to establish a base line of behavior. Then, you have to have some kind of issue to look for -- is the person lying, for example. Then, you need to evaluate the entire context of the behavior in order to make a judgment. The idea that you can count the number of times a person looks up and to the right to see whether or not he is lying is ridiculous. To be fair to Borg, he occasionally gets some details right. But there are enough errors that it would be better to avoid the book entirely.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started reading this book with high hopes, but it was so repetitive that I almost gave up. In the end, I just skimmed through, the amount of repeated information (especially in the beginning) ruined the book for me. The illustrations didn't appear that often, but even when they did, they weren't helpful at all. Why such a low rating? I had hoped for much more, about 75% of the information was only common sense.

[Indra Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku yang lumayan berguna. Akhirnya berhasil saya baca setelah lama menganggur semenjak saya beli waktu saya SMA.

Kekurangan:
~ Bahasa yang aneh (karena banyak bercanda, budaya penulis yang berbeda, terjemahan yang kurang baik)
~ Ilmu yang dibahas bukan ilmu pasti

[Isto R. Eipäs · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first in-depth dive into body language, way back in 2014. The magician James Borg writes very dense from his plethora of insight, without forgetting his wit. First place I got to know of the ID - 10T method, great stuff!

[Sus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy reading, complete concepts.

[Bassma Farah Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's useful and full of important information about how to read the signs of the person you're communicating with. It's pretty interesting and essential to read.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having "to master" on the front cover isn't right.

[Asungushe B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, I never thought I would finish this book. I believed there was not much to the “boring” topic but read it nonetheless because I wanted to improve my ‘fiction’ writing skills. Remember the “show but do not tell rule”? I wanted to express sadness, excitement, or anger without succumbing to; he said sadly, danced happily or shouted angrily but showing through bodily expressions how these emotions were so. James Borg delivered perfectly on my objectives but importantly, made me realize how essential body language is in creating and improving relationships. As he puts it, (in work context) employers first decide whether they like you before checking if you are competent for the job. Impressions matter, and beauty is not only skin deep. It’s deep enough. ..since nobody wants an adorable pancreas? :)
Borg shows you that body reading is a window to a person’s brain since thoughts controls emotions; and emotions affects behavior and vice versa. He not only tells you the bodily manifestations when someone is happy or sad but also the physiology and psychology behind a behavior just that you make sense of the gesture (s) and commit to memory.

As well, he is witty and relevant, using current and famous personalities (and their body language) to drive his points home. Very readable too. Can’t wait to read his another book – “Persuasion”.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting book to read base on several aspects on how to read i) body/facial language, ii) sound language iii) expression result. We should at least excel, otherwise, in the ratio of putting emphasize on 55% facial/body effectiveness, 38% sound and the rest of 7% are just the content of the expression. Interesting book indeed on reading others and also learn to excel on express oneself and excel in it..

[Ashutosh Kaushik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third of James Borg books that I have read. The other two being Mind Power and Persuasion and both of which are better written than this one. There are many books on the subject of body language and this one is not amongst the best though pretty readable but badly illustrated and has some very basic stuff.

Not a bad book to start on the subject but I would rather recommend Louder Than Words Joe Navarro to anyone who wants to explore the world of body language.

[alfitasari · Rating 2 out of 5]

cukup bisa membantu untuk memahami dan menyadari emosi yang [ternyata] tergambar dari bahasa tubuh seseorang.

sayangnya, peristiwa-peristiwa yang dipakai sebagai ilustrasi untuk mewakili kondisi keadaan tertentu kurang bisa mewakili keadaan yang dimaksud, sehingga bisa menuntun ke pemahaman yang berbeda; yang sebelumnya sudah paham malah menjadi bingung.

[Riadiani Marcelita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang lumayan menarik awalnya, tetapi pelajarannya terus diulang-ulang sepanjang buku tanpa penambahan informasi penjelas atau pendukung. Banyak terjadi salah ketik dalam hal tanda baca, serta banyak kata-kata yang sebenarnya tidak penting ditambahkan ke dalam teks, sehingga saya agak bingung membacanya. Lelucon-lelucon yang disisipi juga tidak lucu dan tidak mengena sama sekali.

[bau2you · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book a few months ago and it really helped me. I've been fascinated of this subject ever since was a child and reading Paul Ekman, the father of the Body Language, was like "knocking on haven's door" . James Borg, fond of Ekman, wrote 7 lessons which help people to recognize the body signs... I loved it.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a good one. you learn how to master reading body language and controlling your body language so it matches what you feel and what you want to express. good for public speaking, teaching and meeting new people.

[Maen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is written for beginners and for very busy people who don't want to have even a thorough understanding of the subject, According to my experience it also had some faults and mistakes.. I don't recommend this book at all..

[Kyoungmin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very interesting and want to know more about....

[sofiaidrish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mendapat banyak sekali pelajaran tentang bahasa tubuh dan bagaimana kita bisa lebih memahami orang lain melalui bahasa tubuh mereka. :)

[Myrtlle · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Um proizvodi misao. Misao proizvodi osjećaj. Taj osjećaj 'curi' kroz govor tijela.”