Customer Reviews

The Pocket Guide to Making Successful Small Talk : How to Talk to Anyone Anytime Anywhere About Anything

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased this book, along with "Conversationally Speaking" by Alan Garner and "How To Start a Conversation and Make Friends" by Don Gabor. I bought all three books because I find that reading multiple books on a subject helps me remember the subject's key points more easily.

All three of these books cover the exact same topics, such as listening (instead of waiting for your turn to speak) and asking questions that promote conversation, along with various other skills meant to improve your conversational ability. Of the three books, Carducci's book is the shortest and most poorly organized, and the language used is rather awkward and difficult to read. The book also contains a surprisingly large number of minor grammatical and punctuation errors. It is also the most limited in scope, focusing exclusively on small talk, but without offering more information on this subject that Gabor's and Garner's books. This is a problem, since anybody looking to improve their ability to make "small talk" is probably really looking to improve their conversation skills, and good conversation includes more than just "small talk".

I read Carducci's book last, and I would have given it a more favorable review if I had not read Gabor's and Garner's books first. If you only buy one book on conversation skills, I would suggest Gabor's "How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends." If possible, buy both Gabor's and Garner's books, I feel that reading both together really helped improve my conversation skills! Garner's book is a bit more in-depth, while Gabor's is better organized and somewhat easier to read. I suggest avoiding this book entirely, since the other two books are both much more valuable, as well as slightly less expensive.

This book depressed me more than helped me. I really didn't tell me anything I don't already know. First of all, the first half of the book says how small talk is easy and effortless if you don't think about it too much. Then second half of the book tells you all the things you should remember when making small talk. This is a big contradiction. Second, the examples are way too far from real life. In the "first date" example, the couple talk about more interesting stuff in 2 minutes than I've done in the last 2 years. Quite frankly, it would be easy to make small talk if I had that much to say. Lastly, this book didn't tell me anything I don't already know. All it says is to ask questions and be interested in the person you are talking to. If I wasn't interested in the person, I wouldn't be trying to talk to them. This book may help some people, but it was a waste of time for me.

I write as a natural talker (but, as a minister, I try to help others who are weak here, hence my research) who has no trouble with small talk, and Carducci's booklet is indeed a summary of how we talkers do indeed initiate small talk.

Keep this in mind: this booklet(and it is small,about 77 half pages)zeros in on small talk, not the details of indepth conversation, developing friendship, or overcoming shyness. Carducci provides sample conversations to show how not to do it, and then offers the positive alternative approach.The author outlines key concepts and so that you can get a handle on them.

He could emphasize body language more than he does, yet he does touch on it. So if you are wanting to improve your small talking skills, this is a quick summary of how to do just that.

I was a little surprised at how small this book was, but it had some good information and helped fill out the information that I got from Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner (EXCELLENT!!) and the audiotapes The Fine Art of Small Talk by Deborah Fine (VERY, VERY GOOD!).

The quality and cost of the book was quite disappointing. The pages that were stapled in the book were out of order and other pages were falling out. The first impression was not good.

The content was "ok" but not practical for the introverts that struggle to begin a conversation. If you want to spend this amount on a communication book and learn important details in communicating, I suggest ordering Conversationally Speaking that lists how others perceive you as you converse and how to read others' "signals" during a conversation. Another suggestion is How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less that also gave better advise on conversations than this pocket guide.

The book is good and helpfull, but it's not going to make you Mr. Popularity. You have to make yourself that on your own. Which isn't to say that it's not worth getting. If you need help with learning how to talk to people then it's a good buy. It teaches you what you're doing wrong and how to fix it, and though it will make you feel better about yourself and make you feel more confident, it won't take away any sort of anxiety you have when speaking to someone you don't know. If you apply what the good Dr. says though, in time things like feeling foolish around people will start to get less and less. A little pricey for a book that you could finish in an hour and a half, but filled with enough advice to make it a sound buy.

When I purchased this book, I didn't think I knew much about this topic. Small talk was something I have always felt uncomfortable making, and I hoped this book might help. And in a way I never expected, it did...

What I realized while reading this book is that I knew way more about making small talk than I ever realized. I've been making small talk my whole life, using the exact stratagies outlined in the book. I just never gave names to the various stages of a conversation or thought about why some conversation fail and some don't the way this book does. Realizing how ingrained much of this books advice already is in my "small talk" has given me the confidence to do it more often. And I now have an expectation of success, which makes a big difference. So far, I like the results. This book has really worked for me.

I find books like this help you with opening remarks, like simple one-liner ice breakers. OK, so they feed you some lines and then what are you supposed to talk about? If you don't know many people at the event, it's hard to come up with something interesting that won't end with you red-faced, or with your foot firmly in your mouth. I find online knowledge services like Agogus.com are very helpful in this respect, more that these kinds of books. I have more confidence to start a conversation, now that I have a wide knowledge of all kinds of topics. It's even fun to go to holiday parties, not a pain like it used to be.

when i received this book i almost wanted to return it because i never expected the book to be this small. i thought it was a rip off for $10. how wrong i was. i read it through in an hour but the information was more than i could of got from 400 pages. this is definately a quanlity than quantity book.

This is a bit brief and dry. To me, not worth more than about $5. I really got nothing from it.