Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’
Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?
Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge. The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com
The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.
Here is my contribution for this week:
Over the past year I have had two MRI scans, several blood tests and a lumbar puncture. On a recent visit to the doctor she told me to alter my life to fit this change to my health. She recommended CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). So I thought I would go for a defined search for my Friday Five Challenge. Self-help is a vast genre and there were a huge number of titles. As I scrolled through the thumbnail images I settled on Visual CBT: Using pictures to help you apply Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to change your life. I loved the colour and clean image.
BLURB:
Many people learn best by following a visual approach – retaining information far more successfully if that information is given to them in a visual manner. Visual CBT uses illustrations, graphics and images to help the reader to alter their thought patterns and change behaviours through CBT to become a happier, healthier individual.
Uniquely, it highlights the differences between healthy and unhealthy emotional responses – for example Anxiety instead of Concern – to enable the reader to quickly “picture” how they are reacting, and bring it into line with the healthy type of response.
Includes an explanation of the premise of CBT and how it can relate to everyday life
Uses exercises and practical tips to examine a whole host of healthy vs. unhealthy scenarios – such as depression vs. sadness, anger vs. annoyance, hurt vs. sorrow, shame vs. regret … and much more
Visual CBT is an easy to use guide that can be referred back to time and time again showing how to successfully implement the most important CBT techniques.
I liked the blurb, and the title appealed as I am a visual learner. Having exercises to follow means this will be an interactive book that should make it easier to integrate CBT into my lifestyle.
There are 33 reviews in total and 21 are five stars. The comments are very positive and a number of readers have successfully used this book for their own issues.
At 352 pages, it is a hefty £8.67 for the eBook and £9.13 for a paperback (which I would prefer for a self-help). There were used copies available for £5.68.
As I work in the Mind, Body, Spirit sector, I understand that a CBT face-to-face session would set me back around £30+, so when put into perspective, the book price isn’t so bad. As this search was for a valid personal reason I am going to BUY.
Visual CBT: Using pictures to help you apply Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to change your life. By Avy Joseph, Maggie Chapman, Patrick Watkinson.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ARKOX3S
What is the Friday Five Challenge?
In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
(then write a little analysis about your decision)
Check out these links to other #FridayFiveChallenge
Terry – http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/would-you-buy-or-pass-7.html
Shelley Wilson Author 
A really interesting book, like you a paperback for this subject is better as you often want to flip back and forth between chapters. Definitely the second hand version looks the cheaper way to go. I’m not sure the book cover is very “Visual” and eye catching considering the other words in the book title, for me it need a bit more impact. But I would definitely consider it for the subject matter.
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On reflection the cover wasn’t as eye catching as I originally thought, I was drawn in by the colour and won over by the title. Having only five minutes to choose a book certainly helps you make immediate decisions. I choose the covers in the same way I choose my oracle cards – the one I’m drawn to the most tends to be right.
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I’d love to know if this book helps you once you have bought it, Shelley.
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There are a couple of books I opted to BUY on the FridayFiveChallenge. I think it would be a good idea to post small reviews on each of them – thanks for the idea, Liz. 🙂
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Doesn’t interest me, but I admire the cover – you know straight away what you’re getting. Like the idea of following through the FFC with a review, if you buy and read – nice one, Shelley; I post reviews on my book blog, but will add a link to the original post when I get round to any!
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Haha that’s the important bit – when we get round to reading them! My must-read pile is almost as tall as my ironing pile now 😉
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Sounds intriguing, I’ll be interested to know what you think.
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It’s not for me, but I was interested in your analysis of self-help vs the cost of a professional assessment. Nicely done!
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Self-help titles tend to ‘appear’ when the reader needs them – it’s why I love working, writing and reading in this sector. 🙂
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Sounds fascinating but not one I shall be getting for the moment – interesting to see what is out there though 🙂
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I agree, it’s great fun seeing what everyone chooses 🙂
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