Book Review: The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook: Your Personal Companion to How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci

Amazon.com Review:nnLeonardo da Vinci is the perfect antidote to a dumbed-down world. Perfect for anyone with similar aspirations for self-actualization, the exercises in The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook are designed to provide a lifetime of cerebral expansion, using the seven parameters laid out in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: curiosity; developing knowledge though experience; sensual refinement; a willingness to embrace ambiguity and paradox; linking the scientific and creative sides of the brain; physical poise and fitness; and understanding the connectedness of all life.nnFor example, to develop curiosity, one of the exercises has you ask people you respect to assess your strengths and weaknesses and to offer ways in which you could improve. Uncomfortable? Probably, for both parties. But if you're not curious about how others perceive you, you've closed off entire corridors leading toward self-knowledge and self-improvement. In the section on knowledge and experience, Gelb has you write down each new word you come across, along with its definition, and practice using it as often as you can. Da Vinci, he says, recorded 9,000 words this way. As Gelb notes in his introduction, this isn't a book that can be fully used up in a week or even a year; it could take 10 years to perform all these exercises. It would take months just to listen to the 10 greatest pieces of classical music he lists in the section on sensual refinement, and then listen to them played by different orchestras and conductors to distinguish subtle differences in interpretation. And, certainly, the simmeringly sensual recipes listed in that same section could lead to some very cozy evenings over the course of a lifetime. --Lou Schuler nnProduct Information:nnIn the bestselling tradition of The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal, The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude and The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook comes The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook--the companion volume to Michael Gelb's 1998 Delacorte hardcover bestseller.nnCreated to structure and motivate the reader's development of the seven da Vincian principles introduced in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook represents the natural extension of Gelb's da Vinci line. As any modern da Vinci student knows, Leonardo's notebook both served as the incubator and repository of his unique genius and provides the foundation of any modern-day student's attempt to emulate that genius on his own. From the very first exercise in the original How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb encourages readers to keep their own personal notebooks in which to hone their da Vincian skills; now he provides that notebook for them, with the added bonus of tips on exercises they'll recognize and new suggestions and assignments that will build on the work they've already done.nnDesigned to echo the inviting look of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and structured to help readers focus on each of the seven genius principles, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook is a companion volume that truly complements and enhances the reader's experience of the original book on which it's based. nnTo view this book on Amazon.com, click here.