I can’t recall the last book I read with a larger promise displayed on the front cover, and a woeful fulfilment of that promise within.

The Little Book of Colour promises to teach you how to use the psychology of colour to transform your life. I’m quite interested in the topic of the psychology of colour. If reading this happened to have a positive impact on my life, that would be a bonus in my mind. Sadly, the book does neither. At least, it didn’t for me.

The author regularly reminds you throughout the book that she is one of the world’s leading experts on the subject. You will be told many times over how much time she has spent studying the topic, learning from the best, and now has compiled her research and experience into this all encompassing book.

If I fully believed her on this, I could only assume that there really wasn’t much to say on the topic, and that it wouldn’t take very long to be an expert yourself.

As it turns out, I find it hard to believe her. I have no evidence to produce, but I’m convinced there is much more to say about the psychology of colour than the author provides us with. At times, it reads like a glorified Buzzfeed quiz. In fact, she includes one such 10-question quiz in the middle of the book that is supposed to tell you a lot about your personal relationship to colour. Examples like that certainly don’t help the sceptic!

Who wrote it

Karen Haller is listed as the leading international authority in the field of Applied Colour Psychology. That may well be true. If so, I can only assume it is a very narrow field.

Why I read it

I enjoy design, and I’m always on the lookout to learn more in this space. The cover and title were appealing, and it was very well reviewed.

What I liked

The book feels very nice to hold. It feels like a high quality product, especially for it’s price. It was probably a little too small in dimensions for my liking, with no apparent reason to be this small.

I mostly enjoyed the pages that actually used colour – whether through photographs or colour samples. Unfortunately, for a book all about colour, there were simply not enough of them in my mind.

What I didn’t

I feel the book sets itself up as a scientific endeavour with some real practical implication. Unfortunately, there is very little, if anything, scientific here. That was the biggest let down for me.

On the chapter about colour and clothing, it was clear that the author had only expected women to read this book. While they may well be the primary target for the book, it’s a bizarre choice to make me feel alienated as a man when there was no need to. All the talk was about makeup and dresses, assuming that every reader could relate. It was a poor choice.

I was really looking forward to reading this, and feel utterly disappointed by the end.

Major Takeaway

There are little insights along the way that are not completely meaningless. But overall, it felt like the book didn’t carry any sense of authority that the author may have wished. The sections on the psychology of colour were far too brief to convince you that this is a genuine field of research (which I believe it is). Which leaves you either already on board when she comes to application, or still in the dark about whether any of this is real or if its all the equivalent of a book on the science of horoscopes.

Who should read it

Personally, I can’t think of anyone for whom this book would have enough value to be worth reading.