Sunday, May 9, 2010

How to Win Friends and Influence People


After hearing both Lauren and one of my friends praise this book lavishly, I felt justified in taking a look at it myself.

Their praise is well-deserved: the book is a fairly quick read, very easy on the eyes, and, most importantly, VERY helpful in regards to the subject matter it addresses.

The excellent organization of the book is responsible for the first two approbations. The book is divided into several parts, with each part looking at different areas of dealing with people, namely, as a leader, as a friend, and as a casual acquaintance. Each part is further subdivided into chapters that are all very readable, and contain numerous/humorous anecdotes.

The advice itself is fantastic, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is very simple. Although every idea is expounded by a horde of the aforementioned anecdotes, each one can be distilled to a single phrase which Carnegie places at the end of each chapter. Secondly, the advice is tremendously practical. No matter if you're a businessperson or simply an interested reader, the ideas will be useful to you.

In short, I give this book my highest commendation and would suggest it to anyone and everyone. I would also suggest that everyone suggests to everyone else to read it. It would improve the world so much if we all did.

4 comments:

  1. I've been wondering about this book! Will have to pick up a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  2. Great! Will, I totally agree with your review. This book is really fantastic and very practical.

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  3. OK Will, based on your comments, I just picked this up, and I am expecting to be a more agreeable person, starting tomorrow. You can let me know how I do :)

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  4. So far I haven't noticed any difference....

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