Note: For every book I read this year, I'm going to write a good old-fashioned book report about it. Since I don't have to worry about grades, it won't necessarily be anything long or detailed, but just a "I read this book" sort of thing.

Note 2: I'm really behind on writing reports!

Confessions of a Public Speaker was the first book I borrowed from Lendle.  I don't think I had much interest in reading it, but Amazon is always recommending it to me, and I saw it on the Lendle list, so I figured it wasn't going to cost me anything.

I've spoken at cons and meetings and all sorts of stuff.  I have no problem speaking in public.  That said, I'm always open to finding new things to try in different situations.  I've made a lot of mistakes here, but I've always learned from them.

As you can imagine, there wasn't a huge amount in the beginning of the book I really needed.  It deals a lot with stage fright and explains the "speaker circuit" and stuff, which would probably be more helpful if you wanted to be a professional speaker, which I don't have much interest in.  The most interesting things I found were how to practice better and how to get good feedback from the people you spoke to.

One of my favorite things of the book is this part (that I highlighted...) where the author talks about stage fright.  He first quotes Dr. John Medina:

Many oy the same mechanisms that cause you to shrink in horror from a predator are also used when you are having sex--or even while you are consuming your Thanksgiving dinner.  To your body, saber-toothed tigers and orgasms and turkey gravy look remarkably similar.  An arousod physiological state is characteristic of both stress and pleasure.

Then he says, a bit later:

The body's reaction to fear and excitement is the same...so it becomes a mental decision: am I afraid or am I excited?

I always like to think everything in life is like this.  It's entirely about whether you want to see the glass half empty or half full.  I have to wonder if it annoys the heck of those around me.