Review: Talk to Me: How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro

Talk to Me: How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro by Dean Nelson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are two layers to why I think this book is good.

On one level is the actual content and intent of the book. It is a fascinating insight into the process of conducting interviews. The instructions are clear and actionable, and the reasoning and principles are clearly explained. I know more today about conducting interviews than I did before I started, and I could list the things I would’ve done wrong had I not read this book.

On another level, it is a brilliant window. Dean Nelson uses famous interviews, his own experiences and other anecdotes to create a look into the world of interviewing and journalism that is enjoyable to engage with. In that aspect, it reads like a non-fiction memoir almost sometimes. It’s well-written, which helps, and the stories themselves are quite interesting.

The only thing I will say is that the book lacks in some information I had hoped to glean from it. That may well be my fault, but I had hoped to find information on how to write up an interview as well. The book focuses entirely on how to conduct one. It is extensive in that. However, there is little to no information on how to convert notes into a finished piece, what form that finished piece may take and other such questions. Converting these notes to a story is a difficult process, and the book wasn’t much help at that.

That said, I can’t fault the book too much. The book never claimed it would contain such information, it just feels to me that the information about conducting interviews needs to be paired with the complementary information about writing articles.

Overall, an engaging read on multiple levels.

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