Great Presentation Books

Great Presentation Book“Best of” lists are always popular, and it’s really an obvious exercise, isn’t it, compiling a list of Great Presentation Books?

To recommend books chock full of presentation wisdom to hone our skill set!

Great advice to lift our presentation to what we all sometimes refer to as “the next level.”

And then the equally obvious thought occurred to me – that list already exists.

The List of Great Presentation Books

In fact, I’m certain that several lists are already out there making the rounds.

And so I do the next best thing in this space . . .

I offer you a list of the 35 best presentation books compiled and judged by giants in the field.  And another list of recent great presentation books offered by presentation guru Garr Reynolds.

I offer my own view of what I consider to be the top three presentation books.  Yes, you can learn something about business presenting from a book.

Quite a bit, actually.

The trick is to find the right book.

My Top Three Great Presentation Books

My personal favorites are Presenting to Win, by Jerry Weissman and Slide:ology, by Nancy Duarte, The Story Factor, by Annette Simmons.

These three books, for me, capture the spirit, the art, and the craft of especially powerful business presenting.

They advocate change.

You must change how your deliver your presentations in ways that, at first, you may find discomfiting.  But they are changes that you must accept to become an especially powerful business presenter.

Great Presentation Books for 2014The Story Factor, in particular, is strong in transforming your presentations into sturdy narratives that capture an audience and propel your listeners to action.  Consult Annette Simmons for deep learning about the power of storytelling.

A fourth book does not appear on the list.  Actually, it does, but only in a modified form.

This powerful tome is Dale Carnegie’s The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking.  This is an “updated” version of his classic from mid-way the last century Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business.  In my view, the update strips much useful material from the book, and so I prefer the original.

You can find dozens of copies of the original classic for sale on ebay.  This, in my opinion, is the most useful public speaking book ever penned.

Great Presentation booksIf I were forced to choose one . . . this would be it.

And My Book?

My own book, The Complete Guide to Business School Presenting, does not appear on this superb list of 35 books.  And so here I offer the most generous and self-aggrandizing interpretation possible . . . it just hasn’t circulated among the cognoscenti nearly enough to have created a buzz-worthy impact.

I know that you, as do I, eagerly await its appearance on next year’s “Best of” list.

Until then, enjoy the creme-de-la-creme of great presentation books as exemplified on the lists here!