Yesterday, a friend sent me the link to an interview with author Susan Cain on NPR – Quiet, Please: Unleashing ‘The Power Of Introverts’. I enjoyed it and shared it on Facebook, and another friend pointed me to the companion TED talk – Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts. (Trust me, this video didn’t feel like it was nineteen minutes long when I watched it.) Cain is knowledgeable and convincing, and I can’t wait to get a copy of her book.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
In 2003, Jonathan Rauch wrote a popular essay for The Atlantic called Caring for Your Introvert: The Habits and Needs of a Little-Understood Group, in which he wrote,
“Science has learned a good deal in recent years about the habits and requirements of introverts. It has even learned, by means of brain scans, that introverts process information differently from other people (I am not making this up).”
Since reading this, I’ve been keeping an eye out for more information on the science of introversion. I’m guessing it’s a relatively recent trend, because it doesn’t seem like there are a ton of books out there. But of course, the library does have a few interesting titles –
Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength
by Laurie Helgoe
image via Goodreads
The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World
by Marti Olsen Laney
image via Goodreads
The Happy Introvert: A Wild and Crazy Guide for celebrating Your True Self
by Elizabeth Wagele
So if anyone’s looking for me in the next couple of days, you know where I’ll be – off by myself, quietly reading my way through a suitcase full of books.
-Denise
Eleventh Stack 
I actually have Cain’s book out from the Carnegie Library right now, and might write a review of it before returning it. Ha, I’ve checked out in the past most of the other recent books on introversion also. As a clear introvert, I have mixed feelings about this entire genre and I need to sit down and verbalize why.
Fascinating; thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for this. Susan’s talk was incredible, and I have immediately gone on to share it with others. I’ll be getting the book as well.
WONDERFUL contribution! I love people but it is demanded by my soul to have 8-15 hours a week of TIME-OUT sessions in order to DO whatever required or personally accepted to perform as well as it needs to be. As food is to my body– Introversion has become fuel to my inner soul. WONDERFUL books as suggestions.
Thank you for sharing! I somehow to adhere to the idea that the ‘world’ (I generalise) is better equipped for extraverts nowadays. But then again, they need it more. I’m an introvert myself, forced to ‘extravert roleplaying’. At least that what I like to think. It’s been bugging me for quite some time, but I wasn’t able to address the issue properly. Now I can. So thank you again for this eye-opener.
Have a lovely day.
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