It's amusing how this dated self-help book contains numerous political stories that are out of touch with the modern era. Despite this fact, the book is often hailed as the mother of modern self-help literature.

It provides an all-inclusive list of basics that are still factual and practical even though they are now nearly 100 years old.

However, the book contains more than a few uninspiring, brief, insignificant, and unnecessary stories. Perhaps this is due to the lack of best practices in writing non-fiction books during that time. Nevertheless, this is not an issue we see in non-fiction books these days.

The book's few flaws aside, it's still recommended reading for anyone seeking to improve their communication and people skills.

I speed-read this out of curiosity after coming across an e-edition.

The examples are exhaustive, but there are some good points.

Although I personally didn't learn anything I didn't already know, there were some things that made me say "oh, yeah!"

Not a bad read, but just not my genre.

Some interesting parts, and not a waste of time reading it.

EDIT (update):

I just finished re-reading this, and it is actually a lot more insightful than I realised first time round.

The genius of this book is its simplicity.

Every single one of the principles is so blaringly obvious that you don't think to automatically apply them, and when you do, you really DO see results.

Each principle is outlined and explained with numerous examples so that by the end of each chapter you have a deep understanding of what you have just read.

It really is that simple.

It's clear to see how every subsequent professional development book stems from a chapter of this one. It has a lot of good advice and is very simple to read. The anecdotes and examples, however, are often dated or far too vague.

Would you like to learn to become an entirely agreeable, pushover of a doormat? Because if so, welcome to How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie! Within this book you will be told to always agree with others, always smile, never be negative and let others take credit for things you came up with. To be honest, there is so little I wish to say about this book but I will leave you with this.

DO NOT READ THIS.