Presenting

I've been reading Presentation Zen for a class I'm taking this Spring. Don't let the title scare you, I'm no more Eastern mystic today than I was last week when I celebrated the astrologically heralded birth of a Middle Eastern man who grew up to calm nature and to claim to be "the way" and to tell people they could live forever if they ate his flesh. Dang! Maybe I am a little mystic...

Anyway, the book is a great look at some of the basics of putting together a presentation that people will actually gain from, enjoy, and remember - a presentation that matters. If you have something to say, and you have the opportunity to say it to a bunch of people at once, this book could help you present your message more effectively. And that's pretty important, unless your message doesn't really matter. If that's the case, just skip the book and keep doing what you would have done anyway.


For example, if you're presenting your ideas on how blue socks are better than green socks, you probably don't need the book because, let's face it, white socks rule them both and black socks are in a whole higher realm. If you're a pastor, however, who's tasked with an ambassadorship requiring you to present Christ to people who don't usually notice him... get the book. Stare at the rocks on the cover for a while and let them transport you to a happy place where...  just kidding. Read it!

Incidentally, this is the first book I will have read entirely without paper and ink. I'm using the Kindle for Mac app to read it onscreen. I like tracking my progress with the little bar across the bottom, but I don't like the feeling of not being about to 'see the whole thing' at once. It still feels kind of weird.