PRACTICAL FENG SHUI

As defined by Brown, Feng Shui is "a complex integrated system of theory and practice" based on the "underlying premise that everything in your surroundings" can enhance or block energies. Developed by the Chinese over 4000 years ago, this discipline is becoming increasingly popular in the Western world as a new approach to interior design. Brown and Shurety take a similar approach to the subject, providing well-illustrated guides to the principles of Feng Shui and its use in interior design. With its charts and sample room layouts showing how to apply the principles, however, Brown's book is more accessible. Webster takes a more helpful-hints approach, examining the house as a whole and then room by room while offering a list of Feng Shui tips for achieving a desired effect. For a basic, overall approach, Brown's book is the best, although each of these is useful if there is a strong interest in this design approach.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When multinational corporations the size of British Airways adopt an Eastern philosophy in practice, it is time to take notice. Such is the case with feng shui, the art of designing home and office to promote success. Since the discovery of the concept by the media in the early 1990s, books on the topic have become numerous. But Brown, author of The Principles of Feng Shui, has exorcised the mysticism from his explanation, preferring, instead, a how-to approach. Filled with charts that reinforce all his teachings, his book leads novices carefully through their paces, outlining yin and yang, chakra, and other basics, then discussing a home's structure, shape, and materials. Plus, he identifies problems, including clutter, which slows chi (energy); lack of natural light (for which one should substitute daylight bulbs and ivy plants); and I-shaped rooms, which cut chi (a mirror should be used in the narrow part). Though many people may scoff at the potential benefits of feng shui, to just as many other people, it's a sure thing. Barbara Jacobs