Reading the latest review of this book, I literally had to leave my desk, walk over to the book shelf and check the title of the book I thought I'd read, because there was such a mismatch. But no mistake. It's just that I'm not able to associate the glowing praise of the reviews with what I have in front of me.
I bought it from Amazon with an open mind and was actually looking forward to it arriving in the post. It came and with great excitement I read the cracking testimonials from John Harvey-Jones, "Management Today" and others, and was thrilled by the way it described itself as "The world's bestselling book on persuasion".
But... it's full of hot air.
A lot of the content is stuff you will have seen before (like the stats on non-verbal messages). It also gives you cliched stereotypes of a number of different personality types. And every chapter is full of examples of "how to" and "how not to" communicate. The example conversations it gives are just, for want of a better word, lame. Here's one:
Harriet (to John): "Every time I look in the mirror all I can see is wrinkles. I look in the mirror and I see flabby arms. I see big hips. I see big thighs. I see cellulite everywhere. Oh, John - say something positive to give me hope."
John: "Err... At least there's nothing wrong with your eyesight."
Boom-boom! That's not Persuasion; that's Terry And June. If you *want* dodgy 1970's sitcomesque dialogue, this is going to be a book you'll enjoy. If you want real-life examples of how actual people communicate with each other, however, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Hugely disappointed.