Book review of How to Win Friends and Influence People

Book review: How To Win Friends and Influence People

Author: Dale Carnegie

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Probably in its gazillionth reprint, this book’s enduring popularity may have something to do with its consistent updates. I was curious to see how this latest reprint would tackle modern “influencing”, but it didn’t broach the subject and as far as I can see, the changes in this edition are all style and structure related and the book also seems to be somewhat condensed. How To Win Friends and Influence People was first published in 1936 and has remained a consistent best-seller in each subsequent decade.

I first encountered a grubby, yellowed hard-cover version of this book, which was missing a jacket, among my father’s haphazard collection in my teens.

Every teen wants to be popular so I read through the first chapters with relish until I got about midway where a whole chapter interrupted the flow with “homework”, which quickly put me off. This homework chapter was greatly reduced in subsequent reprints and now appears at the front of the book in bullet point form.

When I found my father’s bedraggled copy again many years later, I decided to give it another go – but gave up again. This time it was the plethora of anecdotes that supported each point which became too tiresome. Subsequent reprints appear to have whittled these anecdotes down too and this edition only had a few per chapter.

Now in my middle age, I think I have finally cracked the best way to read this book. Maybe it’s the slimmed-down format that made it more digestible, but I took heed of one of the bullet points and skim-read the book, first. One of the book’s own pieces of advice about itself is that it is best enjoyed in short, savoured bites and when I tried that method, I found myself making far better progress – at reading it, that is.

Fundamentally, the base premise of this book is about understanding people. Its seven key principles all teach empathy and each takes practice. Therefore, this book is the kind that is worth keeping on the shelf and for occasional deep dips.