The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections [Hardcover]

Roger Horchow (Author), Sally Horchow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2006

The frantic pace and casual attitudes of modern life have made real friendship a rare experience. The Art of Friendship shows how making true connections can greatly enhance one's life. Seventy brief essays present simple but effective "rules of connecting" with action points to help you put each rule into practice in daily life. Woven throughout are personal anecdotes from the Horchows, sharing their experiences of friendship.
Recognizing that friendships take many forms, the authors offer practical, proven advice that demystifies the process of making friends.

The rules include:

How to create rapport-- even in a crowd
How to transform an acquaintance into a friend
When to e-mail, pick up the phone, send a note, or meet in person
How to maintain long-term friendships --and even when it's time to quit

The book opens with a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) that explores the Horchows' special talent for making and keeping friends. Whether your goal is to start a new relationship or reinvest in a longstanding friendship, this inspiring book will reveal how you can build more meaningful connections in your life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 From the foreward:
"The premise of what Sally and Roger Horchow have written is that The Art of Friendship has a few simple guidelines that anyone can be taught -- it's a good deal easier to learn something that looks very difficult from the outside if you're being taught by an expert and trust me, in the case of the Horchows senior and junior, you're in the hands of experts." -- Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of "The Tipping Point"

"This father-daughter collaboration, a from-the-heart and from-the-hearth little book, is simply a rare jewel in today's hardened, unkind society. It's full of great advice, love, and common sense. There is no better combination. In fact, I think it's a great antidote for anything that emotionally ails you." -- Letitia Baldrige, author of "New Manners for New Times"

"Friends are hard to come by, hard to keep, and sometimes hard to get rid of. Here's a book that helps on all scores. If I didn't already consider Roger & Sally Horchow to be good friends, I'd certainly want them to be after reading this wise and charming book." --William F. Buckley Jr.

"Roger Horchow has made a success of everything in his full life: as a husband and father, as a remarkable, innovative businessman, as a brilliant Broadway producer, as a generous donor to the things he believes in, and as a warm, supportive, permanent friend. In this little book, he and his daughter, Sally, combine to reveal Roger's secret formula for success: reach out, give more than you receive, persevere, and remember all we really have on this earth is each other." -- Robert K. Massie, historian and author of "Nicholas & Alexandra"

About the Author

ROGER HORCHOW is the founder of the Horchow Collection, the first luxury mail order only retailer, and a Tony Award winning Broadway producer. His talent for connecting earned him a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

 

SALLY HORCHOW is a lifestyle and trend writer whose work appears regularly in publications like the New York Times, Town & Country and DailyCandy.com

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312360398
• ISBN-13: 978-0312360399
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Relationships > Interpersonal Relations
  • #55 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Transformation
  • #97 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Detailed Enough To Help Learn How To Make New Friends, August 25, 2007

By 

Iris "AZ_Mommy" (Gilbert, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections (Hardcover)

I agree with reviewer that said this is a nice little REMINDER about how we can be better friends -
e.g.: Listen before you speak, empathize, and so on....
but I don't believe this book is an actual tool for helping you Make New Friends.

I also completely agree and was also frustrated with the reiteration of tips. It really is 35 tips stretched out to seem like 70 tips for the purpose of filling the pages of a book.

If you are looking for tips on how to make new friends in environments where you don't know a soul, or if you are looking to learn the art of approaching people and engaging them in conversation, and how to keep that conversation interesting, etc, this is not the book for you.

I could write a similar book for teenagers called "The Art of Learning to Drive" and tell them that Rule #1 is "When the light turns green, you go...." Oooh, and I bet you can guess what Rule #2 would be. Never mind providing the details about those pedals down on the floor of the vehicle and that the one on the left is the brake and the one on the right is the gas. A book that claims to provide some instructional assistance needs to have a certain degree of detail. You will not find that detail in this book.

I would highly recommend "The Art of Mingling" by Jeanne Martinet. Even if you don't want to become an expert on mingling, this author provides some really wonderful insight, suggestions and methods for approaching people that you don't know, great conversation starters, how to approach groups of people, and even how to get out of a conversation that is not going well. I think the tips in "The Art of Mingling" are all invaluable tools for making new friends.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RULE #71 - SHARE THIS BOOK, October 27, 2006

By 

Eduardo A. Braniff "EAB" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections (Hardcover)

In the short time of applying a handful of these rules in my friendships, I have come to realize how easy it is to make even the most long-standing friendships more profound and interesting. What I loved most of The Art of Friendship is appreciating that we can always make room for new and different relationships. Friendship is about making the simplest of efforts. And with 70 of these efforts now easily outlined for everyone, one can only imagine how the world might become a better place thanks to it being filled with better friends!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!, October 28, 2006

By 

S. Furman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections (Hardcover)

"The Art of Friendship" is not only an invaluable resource - it's a great read. Roger and Sally Horchow have peppered their well-written, fantastic How-To with personal anecdotes which are interesting, informative, and both complement and underscore their friendship tips brilliantly. This book is rife with wisdom and insight into how to develop, maintain, and deepen Friendhips - but it will not only make you a better friend, it will make you a better person. Buy it, read it, live it!