I kept meaning to buy Confessions of a Public Speaker (Amazon) because I read his blog, and I finally got around to it.
Part of the reason I was slow to buy it was because I think I ingest all the speaking advice I can already.
Turns out, this book is mostly not advice – it’s a collection of stories about his own experiences. I really liked it for that, it was an insight into that kind of life. In the end the main piece of advice is to practice, with some blunt honesty on why people don’t. My favourite part were the stories of disaster, which were hilarious, (in the appendix).
Main thing that bothered me was constant use of he, including in what to wear. This happened pretty often – every chapter – and each time I felt like this wasn’t really a book for me? Most of it still applies… But not all.
On the whole whether I recommend it depends on how much that would bother you. Sometimes that really winds me up and sometimes I can deal with it, and fortunately I read it when I was in the second kind of mood.