Covert Persuasion by Kevin Hogan and James Speakman - Book Review

I really wanted to like this book, but after reading it I was left somewhat unsatisfied by Covert Persuasion.

The book suffers from what many books (especially self-help books) suffer from these days - a lack of content. I remember a few years ago sitting down at my wordprocessor and taking notes on many of my favorite books and being shocked at how little there was to actually take notes on.

This is not a book of technique, it's a summary.

Several chapters are just long lists of techniques or concepts relevant to persuasion, but there is almost nothing that you can actually 'do'. Admittedly the section on using persuasion in a story I did find interesting and this is the most 'practicable' section of the book, but otherwise there is little of value here.

Some sections towards the end of the book seem to have no relevance to the title at all, and have obviously been provided as filler.

Personally my favorite book on persuasion is Persuasion Engineering, which some could argue is also a little light on content (it isn't) but unlike Kevin and James book, is a brilliantly hypnotic read.