Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior- -Anytime, Anyplace Paperback – May 18, 1999

I find it interesting that reviewers either loved this book or hated it. I think when read in its entirety, and not as a cookbook to human behavior, it is most helpful and thoughtful. I took from this book the importance of not stereotyping or jumping to conclusions about people. Rather, the authors convincingly state reasons for looking for patterns, observing what people do and say, truly listening to others and projecting to others what you really mean to project. I think the disappointed reviewers who made comments here were looking for ways to make snap judgments and fulfilled their own negative expectations. I was looking for insight and ways to avoid making snap judgments and I found them. Thank you to the authors. I'd love to attend a seminar by these people.

This books say it can show you "how to understand people and predict their behavior anytime, anyplace." Can you imagine how useful a book like this could, if it were true? Unfortunately, there are no "secret tips" which can "change your life" forever. (This is a quote on the front of the book.) What this book does have are the theories of the writers which include some interesting observations based on their experiences. In science, we call this arguing by analogy. One experience, or three, doesn't make a theory true it just makes it interesting. There are some good tips here. Overall, however, the writing is so stilted and arrogant that whatever you might learn is may not be worth the read.
To begin with the writers preach a seven point approach to "reading people." This first thing this approach says is that you need to "spend more time with people" to understand them. It is almost as if this was an instruction manuel for aliens. The writer then give six more points to be discussed in the book. The very next paragraph, however, talks about something different. Sorta of an introduction to why the authors wrote the book. Writing like this, found throughout the book, can make it hard to follow. It is unfortunate because the back cover of this book has all sorts of interesting and promising topics. "What message are you sending with your hairstyle?" or "What does a man's shoes say about the way he will behavior in your meeting?" If the author had a chapter based on each of these questions, the book would have been more interesting.
Instead, the author takes everything baby-step by baby-step. It was slow, and a little insulting. Applying the techniques taught in "Reading People" I could have predicted this result just from some of the comments found in its introduction where the author states she "endured the world's scrunity, and often its harsh criticisim, because I helped select the jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson." Hmm. I never know that this person helped select the O.J. jury. Do you think that is why he was acquitted? To be fair, who is on the jury always plays a big role in any trial. But the author never explains who she rejected from the jury or how that made a difference. So in this statement, while she appears to be acting modest, she is actually crowing about one of her achievements. One that might be very interesting, if she detailed how she did it in this book. She does not.
There are some interesting tips here. The best one, I think, is that people are usually consistent in their behavior. If they appear to be inconsistant, they may be in crisis, or you may be looking at the wrong clues. With such information, we can answer the questions I talked about above. If a person has very clean, sparking shoes, he is more likely to be a good worker, attentive to details, then one whose shoes are dirty. If a person has a mohawk hair style for example, you may be more likely to hire them at you business, if you want someone who is creative and unconvential.
Do you need a book, do you need this book, to know this? I would say, probably not. If you are still interested in this topic, , there is a much better book out there by Mike Caro. It is about playing poker, but he teaches and demonstrates the same principles found here. If you know anything about poker, his book was a much more interesting read. It wasn't great either, but it was a good read.

To quote the author, you can't judge a book by its cover.
In the airport bookstore, this book looked very promising. The author's specialty is picking jurors, often in high profile criminal cases. The cover promises the book will tell us "how to understand people and predict their behavior." It seems plausible that such an author would have some useful information to impart to those of us who would like to do a better job of understanding the people around us.
The book, however, has a couple of shortcomings:
First, most of the "people-reading" tips are pretty obvious. For example, the author tells us that if a person prominently displays alcohol in their house, there is a good chance they like to drink. Or that people who brag a lot are probably insecure and self-centered. For this I paid $15!
Second, the book lacks focus. Part of the book tells how people's dress, mannerisms, actions and so forth give clues to their character -- and in fairness, some of the author's thoughts in this regard are interesting. But then the book wanders off into the self-help genre, telling us how to use our new-found people reading skills to improve relationships. I suppose this sort of material sells, but it has little to do with the central premise of the book.
In short, my advice is to save yourself some money and pass on this one.