How to Talk So People Will Listen

Rating:
Summary: did not add much to most readers' knowledge
Review: The book declares in the introduction that it is not a book for scholars or professional communicators. I wish I had seen this before I bought it. What I was really looking for was some help for my public speaking skills. The book really is a compendium of "common sense" that we should use when we communicate with others. We should have learned most of this through our own life experience while interacting with others, but it is all here in one convenient package so that we don't have to go looking everywhere for this information.

Even though the book is entertaining and it never purports to be the type of book that I was searching for, it really did not tell me anything that I already didn't know. It does give advice on how to "give a speech" for example, but the advice is too vague and not specific enough to be of great help (like, "legitimize your fear"; "illucidate you fear"; "embrace your fear"; "the best way to make an impression is by making the impression that you are not trying to make an impression", etc.) While the book is good so far as it goes and the advice is true, I just did not see that it added much to most readers' knowledge about the subject. If you do need a book with lots of awesome practical tips for public speaking then get Tony Jeary's "Inspire Any Audience".