This is a book by one of the world’s most renowned conversationalists, talking about what he does best; talking to people. In his book, “ how to talk to anyone anytime anywhere,” Larry King, the host of CNN’s “Larry King Live,” gives down to earth practical advice on how to improve on a person’s communication skills.

What makes this book different is the great amount of experience its author has in talking to people. So, his book is not about theories and techniques from an academic perspective, but more from the viewpoint of someone who knows. He takes the concept from his own personal experience, which makes the book even more interesting.

There are lots of examples of the matching between King’s advice and best practices of communication. He demonstrates how listening, not talking, is the key to a good conversation. As far as values, he reaffirms the recommendations of communication experts, like the late Carnegie, that honesty and having genuine interest in people are the keys to implementing any communication skill successfully. Even in the first sentence of the book, the veteran talk show host proves his mastery of the art of communication by stating one of its most important rules, which is practice: “Talking is like playing golf…” he writes, “the more you do it, the better you get at it…” However he warns, “But you have to understand the fundamentals first.”

 It is a good idea for someone reading this book to also read another book about effective communication as a science, and then try to map the techniques in the science book with those recommended by Mr. King. The principles and concepts that both are built on are almost identical. However, Larry King talks about them casually from experience, while a scientific book will have a more structured approach and terminology to it. This will enforce the ideas better and provide a framework for implementation of better communication techniques.

In his book, King covers both social as well as business talk. He also does an analysis on what the best talkers have in common, which includes being enthusiastic, empathetic, not talking about themselves, being curious, and having a sense of humor.

 The second part of the book focuses more on Larry King’s personal experience as a TV show host. One of these fun chapters to read include the author’s analysis of the best and worst guests on his show and why. While it might sound too self centered, however it also offers good insights and lessons in good communication, as King discusses what makes for a good or bad guest. Interestingly enough, some of his worst guests are famous performers like Bob Hope, who was one of the best comedians. His exaggerated tendency to turn every answer into a joke was sited as one of the reasons why the interview did not go so well. Those who were best are people with passion to what they do.

 This is a good book to read for three types of readers. One is the reader who is looking to start learning how to communicate better with people and needs a starting point to do so, but cannot stand to read a book written by a professor type with lots of science and tough terminology. The other type of reader is someone who studied effective communication from academic books or books written by academic experts, but wants to learn how practitioners apply these theories in real life. Finally, this book is also useful for someone who is looking at a fun reading but would rather do that reading about real life experiences and benefit from it, rather than a love story or novel.

One of the most helpful pieces of advice in this book is about getting people caught up in the conversation. Meaning let them speak out of passion, not for the sake of communicating information. This is a good way, as Larry suggests, to help people get over their shyness.

The book was last printed in 2004, but the early versions date back to 1994. It comes in 224 pages with editions in paperback as well as hardcover. The author is among the top TV talk show hosts of all times. He has been inducted into five broadcasting halls of fame and is the recipient of several awards for excellence in journalism and for his radio and TV shows. He is known for his ability to engage his guests as well as his audience in discussions on his daily TV show, which was debuted on CNN in 1985.