Carolyn Boyes

Need to Know? Body Language is the first of the (hopefully) many books on non-verbal communication I'll be getting through this year, and I found it a nice, accessible way of 'dipping my toe back into the water' of the whole NVC/body language field.

It's a fairly basic primer on the subject, starting – with the assumption that the reader has no background at all – with a section on why body language is important, and what to look for if you want to start observing and interpreting it. After this follow sections that deal with each of the body areas in turn (face, eyes, hands, arms, feet, legs); sections that go into movements and use of space and territory; sections that turn more practical with explorations of non-verbal signal clusters that communicate dominance, submission, interest, boredom, aggression, pleasure and attraction; and finally explores the kinds of signal clusters you'd want to aim for in specific situations like job interviews, sales presentations and business meetings.

I liked many things about this book – the writing style is friendly and easy to read, and every page is illustrated with large colour photos that allow you to see exactly what's been described elsewhere on the page. I don't always agree 100% with the book's description of what the non-verbal signal clusters are saying overall, but that could be either the photo model not believing totally in the role they're supposed to be portraying, or my lack of interpretive skill(or, alternatively, a little from column A, a little from column B). That acknowledged, I do agree more often than not; and even when I don't, it's still HUGELY helpful to have the photos there to illustrate it.

Other things I liked included the recognition that NVC is always culturally- and individually-specific (and that what's described in this book is valid for the majority of Western cultures only), and the brief forays the book makes into specific signal differences in specific cultures.

Dislikes? Well... I ended up choosing this book from amongst a collection of others because it looked small and not too intimidating as a first foray back into the arena... but having now read it, I find myself wanting it to have been longer – both as a total book, and in each of the sections (which generally only had a double-page spread per subsection). Basically, the book as a whole felt like a brief taster - an appetite whetter – for all sorts of bits and pieces related to body language... and now I really, really want more. Partly, what I want can't be provided by a book... I need to start watching video footage of various situations and analysing what I'm seeing (or, gods help me, actually get out into the real world and start watching people more!), but I'm pretty sure there'll be other books out there that will be able to give me more detail in some of the areas.

Overall, I'd happily recommend this book to anyone with a fleeting interest in non-verbal communication; or anyone who, like me, is trying to get back into noticing and analysing the body language going on around them. It's probably a little too basic, however, for anyone who's already skilled in the topic and wanting to expand their knowledge.

I'm still getting used to how my internal rating scale works for non-fiction, rather than fiction, but in terms of both enjoyment and educational purposes, I think I'd probably put it in on the same level as Eats, Shoots and Leaves... not as humourous, but probably (in the end), more informative. So yeah – let's call it 8.5/10, with a note that that it's totally made me jones for my next NVC text fix.… (mer)