cover image You Are Your Blood Type

You Are Your Blood Type

Toshitaka Nomi. Pocket Books, $6.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-63342-4

Devotees of popular psychology will be diverted if not persuaded by this lively, somewhat tabloid, foray into personality dynamics according to blood type. Nomi is founder of Japan's ABO Society, which California-based freelance writer Besher calls a ""blood-type think tank,'' and that is fast gaining cult status on the Japanese mass market, where blood types are the '80s equivalent to sun signs. They maintain here, in a work embellished with colorful anecdotes, that type Os tend to be high achievers, goal oriented, dogmatic, very sexy and image conscious; As, introverted, methodical, idealistic and repressed; Bs, independent, mercurial and irresponsible; and ABs (the rarest group), analytical, intense, trustworthy yet indecisive. Quizzes and charts encourage readers to assess themselves and their relationships in light of this analysis. There is also advice on love, marriage and careers. Bearing in mind that a specific link between blood type and personality, with no concrete scientific basis, is merely an appealing hypothetical constructa cross between astrology and a liberal extrapolation of trait theoryNomi's models nonetheless offer insights into the motivations and behavior of those with clearly dominant personality characteristics. (May)