Gone Are The Conversation Starters
John G. Self
Career Advisor/Interview & Job Search Guide: We help executives and managers elevate their interview skills
I love books—for their content and for the conversations that their subject matter, provocative titles, or book covers can generate on an airplane or train.
I love good conversation and meeting new people. My family and friends laughingly (and correctly) say that I could chat up a brick wall, an important trait in my profession.
When I began my business development career selling helicopter ambulance programs to hospitals in the mid-1970s, passengers with books on airplanes and trains offered people like me an opening to try and start a conversation.
The late Christopher Hitchens’ book, “God Is Not Great” is an example of a quintessential title to ignite an engaging conversation or polite debate.
Today, you see fewer and fewer people with actual books. Now, more often than not, the conversation opener (and closer) is not about the title of the book, but, “So, how do you like your iPad?”
Women (and men) reading “Fifty Shades of Grey” are probably thanking Mr. Jobs for that.
Award Winning Author of The Dr. Lindsey McCall Medical Mystery Series and Novels of the Ancient World
9 年Hi John G. Self, There are a few of us troglodytes around. Last year while promoting the release of my first novel in Austin and Houston, I began talking with fellow travelers simply because they had a book in hand, like me. I do read many books on kindle while researching my latest book-am working on the 3rd in the seres as we speak- but reading a good novel for pure pleasure? There's nothing like it!