Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds was a book I was expecting to read for a long time. I've heard so much positive about it and I knew it to be visual and enjoyable. It turned out to be everything and bit more I expected.
Presentation Zen is mainly about presentations done with Power Point or some other similar tool. Luckily, it's not only about those, that would be bit boring. It actually shares so much wisdom on the area of presentation and design, that everyone should read it. It tells also some basics about Zen and Japanese culture, what makes the book even more special.
Overall it's enjoyable to read with lot's of good visual pages and examples. It really walks the talk with well designed pages to prove the meaning of a good design. Of course form of a book doesn't give full right to all presentations, due the lack of presenter being there, but it's as perfect as a book can be in this subject. It's not only telling about writers thoughts on the area, but interestingly connects idea from many other brilliant thinkers.
I often don't like guide books. I don't believe in instructions that say that you should do this and that to succeed. I think that most of the cases, how you should do something is related to the moment. One size just don't fit all. Even though this book emphasizes the usage of pictures quite much and instructs to cut down the words in slides, overall it doesn't give that strict instruction to make better presentations. It gives guidelines which can be used for creating suitable presentations for unique moments. That's the way I like it.
As you might guess already, I definitely recommend this book.. It's easy to read, fast and enjoyable. And best of all, it's full of good insights how to be a better presenter and better in communication overall. To be honest, I don't know to whom, I wouldn't recommend this book. It's a piece that everyone should read.
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen
