!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: Laughter is the Best Medicine II

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Laughter is the Best Medicine II

Today's New York Times Book Review has an entertaining short essay recounting a sidewalk experiment in "hand-selling" books. Henry Alford describes how he set up a sales table in front of his Greenwich Village building to see how quickly he could unload a group of books he and some friends had decided they could bear to part with. These select items — priced at a dollar for hardcovers and 50 cents for paperbacks — included:
  • A 1986 edition of "I Love New York Guide" (one of several well-aged travel guides)

  • "Homeowner's Guide to Fastening Anything"

  • "The Importance of Scrutiny" (an essay collection from Scrutiny, a British literary journal)

  • Two volumes of thriller writer Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries

  • "Beginning Greek" (1961 edition)

  • "Michigan Folk Art"

  • A collection of drawings filmmaker/writer Rebecca Miller made without looking at the page she was drawing on

  • "Moderato Cantabile" (in French; allegedly impenetrable even when translated)

  • "Pruning Simplified"
You can read Alford's full account of his eloquent sales efforts here — and perhaps pick up a little inspiration for enlivening your next sales training class.

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posted by Karen Nelson @ 6:35 AM