I received this book from Lisa Roe. I’m so grateful to her for being such a proponent of books; her enthusiasm is definitely infectious! Unfortunately, her enthusiasm for Charanavi (pronounced kare-uh-nah-vee) didn’t quite rub off on me.

The back of the book explains, “Started in Japan in 1997, Character Navigation Psychology was developed as the first theory to analyze personality types by pairing them with 12 unique animal characters.”

You find your character by using a fairly simple formula based on your date of birth that references a table included in the book. I happen to be a Devoted Monkey:

I started reading about the Devoted Monkey and I couldn’t believe what I was reading! “Having a strong intuition by nature (how did they know?), you are very good at understanding others’ feelings (YES! I like to think this is true!). Since you care for those around you and always work hard (at least they got the always work hard part right…caring about my co-workers isn’t normally how I would describe myself), you can be too delicate at times (so true!). You rarely show your feelings (um, well, if you knew me you’d know this is so off track…but I’ll keep reading ’cause it’s pretty accurate so far!). Because you are not emotional and can think in a rational way (I’m kind of like a guy this way), you work at your own pace very smoothly (YES!). Having an independent mind, you are skilled at analyzing the best timing to take action (yup). But since you can handle things cleverly and shrewdly, you cannot leave things to others and thus tend to be weak at teamwork (ROFL!! My upcoming wedding is proof of this.). You have the ability to create something from a formless idea, and you are a genius at making money. Although you do not live in luxury, you know how to utilize money to meet your needs (I ROCK at this).”

WOW! I thought to myself. This Chara…whatever you call it stuff is pretty accurate! I glanced at the next page which has a chart of which years will be best for you financially. Ironically, 2008 is a peak year for me. My income will increase dramatically when I get married, and hopefully I’ll get this job I’m applying for.

So far this stuff is so accurate it’s creepy. I wondered what the other animals were like. I jumped over to the Fawn, and this is where the rose-colored glasses came off…

“…you are as pure as an innocent child, so your heart is often disturbed (very true). You have strong likes and dislikes, and once you have decided that you hate something or someone, that means it is final (YES!).”

Flipping through the book, I had lots of qualities of most of the animals. Maybe it’s not so accurate after all. This is like most things that predict your personality: enough generalities and it will apply to anyone. This book claims it will improve your relationships…perhaps it improves relationships because people start paying more attention. The ironic thing is that the people who buy books like this are probably already paying attention to the people around them.

Rating: 80. While it’s not my thing and I think it’s silly, I still had fun.