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A review by angeliqueazul
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds by Carmine Gallo
2.0
I love TED talks and wanted to learn more about great presentation techniques, which is why I picked up Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo. Unfortunately, there are a number of things wrong with this book, so here is my critique with - Gallo-style - three 'secrets' of writing a good book:
1. It is much longer than it needs to be. The irony is that Gallo emphasizes conciseness when it comes to presenting... someone should have stopped him from making this book SO much longer than it needed to be. SECRET ONE: Find the appropriate form for the content you want to write about.
2. The repetitiveness! Wow, I was so annoyed. On the same or two consecutive pages, the author wrote almost the exact same thing with almost the same wording. I mean, here you have someone who tells you something, then goes into unnecessary detail about it and finally repeats the point in the the beginning of a new section. SECRET TWO: Readers pay attention, you don't need to make them suffer in order for them to get it.
3. Gallo discusses a lot of TED talks in his book. Unfortunately, for the reader there are two scenarios: either you have seen the talk Gallo refers to and you really do not need that much detail to remember this memorable talk or you have not seen that particular talk and you have problems imagining it from a mere description. The book relies on a reader who understands what a TED talk is. It would have been a much better idea not to summarize the talks but rather to include 'Watch it now!' requests and let the reader pause reading the book, watch the talk and then go back to the insights about the talk in the book. The descriptions and quotes from the talks are the best part of the book though, so book-TED talk inaction instead of these long recaps would have probably been the death of this book. SECRET THREE: If the best part of your book is quotes from other writers, you don't have a book.
The structure and writing really killed this book. A much more visual (another advice by Gallo...) approach, similar to Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, could have made this an engaging, informative read. I can recommend reading only the bold sections and the 'secrets' for those of you interested in this. But because of the book's structure the really interesting information cannot be even be found when you want to only skim read this, which is what makes it such a frustrating piece of writing. I personally used some of the advice in the book - like engage your audience, use visual aids (that one is pretty obvious and has been my preferred style for ages), and tell a personal story - for a conference talk and it worked nicely. But is the advice in here revolutionary? Definitely not. Most of it (the visuals or practice A LOT) is fairly obvious if you want to present well. In other words, for people completely new to public speaking, this might be a good way to start - but for everyone else, skip this one or skim at best.
1. It is much longer than it needs to be. The irony is that Gallo emphasizes conciseness when it comes to presenting... someone should have stopped him from making this book SO much longer than it needed to be. SECRET ONE: Find the appropriate form for the content you want to write about.
2. The repetitiveness! Wow, I was so annoyed. On the same or two consecutive pages, the author wrote almost the exact same thing with almost the same wording. I mean, here you have someone who tells you something, then goes into unnecessary detail about it and finally repeats the point in the the beginning of a new section. SECRET TWO: Readers pay attention, you don't need to make them suffer in order for them to get it.
3. Gallo discusses a lot of TED talks in his book. Unfortunately, for the reader there are two scenarios: either you have seen the talk Gallo refers to and you really do not need that much detail to remember this memorable talk or you have not seen that particular talk and you have problems imagining it from a mere description. The book relies on a reader who understands what a TED talk is. It would have been a much better idea not to summarize the talks but rather to include 'Watch it now!' requests and let the reader pause reading the book, watch the talk and then go back to the insights about the talk in the book. The descriptions and quotes from the talks are the best part of the book though, so book-TED talk inaction instead of these long recaps would have probably been the death of this book. SECRET THREE: If the best part of your book is quotes from other writers, you don't have a book.
The structure and writing really killed this book. A much more visual (another advice by Gallo...) approach, similar to Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, could have made this an engaging, informative read. I can recommend reading only the bold sections and the 'secrets' for those of you interested in this. But because of the book's structure the really interesting information cannot be even be found when you want to only skim read this, which is what makes it such a frustrating piece of writing. I personally used some of the advice in the book - like engage your audience, use visual aids (that one is pretty obvious and has been my preferred style for ages), and tell a personal story - for a conference talk and it worked nicely. But is the advice in here revolutionary? Definitely not. Most of it (the visuals or practice A LOT) is fairly obvious if you want to present well. In other words, for people completely new to public speaking, this might be a good way to start - but for everyone else, skip this one or skim at best.