The Art of Conversation - Catherine Blyth [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter 1 - HELLO On Conversation’s Casting Couch
Chapter 2 - SMALL TALK, BIG DEAL On Striking Up a Tune
Chapter 3 - PAY HEED On the Acrobatics of Attention
Chapter 4 - THE REST IS SILENCE On Not Speaking
Chapter 5 - FIT SUBJECTS On Topics in Search of Good Homes
Chapter 6 - INTO THE GROOVE On Steering Controls
Chapter 7 - DO GO ON On Wrangling Boredom
Chapter 8 - WIT TO WOO On Humor as Social Engineering
Chapter 9 - HOW TO TELL A LIE On the Detection of Untruths
Chapter 10 - PILLOW TALK On the Languages of Love
Chapter 11 - THE FINE ART OF FLATTERY On Love in Measured Doses
Chapter 12 - SHOP TALK On Conversation as Work
Chapter 13 - CHOPPY WATERS On Navigating Difficult Conversation
Chapter 14 - SHUT-UP SHOP On How to Wage a Word War
Chapter 15 - ARE YOU RECEIVING ME? On Stitching Conversation into Your Life
P.S.
Acknowledgements
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GOTHAM BOOKS
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Published by Gotham Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First printing, January 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Catherine Blyth
eISBN : 978-1-440-68549-1
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FOR VIVIAN AND STEPHEN
INTRODUCTION
We Need to Talk
We need to talk.
When did this become a threat rather than a statement of fact? Is it a fact?
Walk into an Internet café and you might think speech obsolete. Visit a bar with wide-screen sports, eat in a Planet Hollywood, see if you can sneak a word through the Dolby Stereo barrier. On a bus, you might have no choice but to hear conversation, in babel-like halves, but would you strike one up with a stranger? Go on, I dare you.
Some say this is the age of information; others, the communication age. There is no question that our ever growing means of keeping in touch have unleashed intelligence, creativity, passion, and fun, offering countless new directions in which to stretch our hours. Yet these riches leave many of us feeling not so much lucky as time-poor, as if life were hurtling by