Reality Check” is a monster of a book. It has 94 short chapters and runs about 460 pages – but it is such an easy, entertaining and hilarious read, that you would never dream that it was that long. In fact, I previewed the book digitally and had commented to a few people that it was a short read. And in a way it is. You can read it any way you like; you can start from start to finish or you can grab a chapter or two whenever you have about 3 minutes to spare. That’s about how long it takes to read any of the chapters.

I’ve been reading this book over the last week or so and it’s a shame that it’s so big because it’s one of these things you want to take everywhere you go – for those few spare minutes where you want to read something short that you can think about and noodle on later.

The book is written in a form that’s a cross between a blog post, a presentation and a conversation. You run into the blog-post style in the introductions and in the commentary throughout the book:

“I wanted to provide hardcore information to hardcore people who want to kick ass, and I wanted this information in something you can hold in your hands – aka, a book. Why? Because a book boots up faster than a blog and a book has better copy editing and fact checking than a blog….”

Then Guy sprinkles these presentation-style quick-hit bullet chapters that entertain and educate at the same time. This “educate-while-entertaining” is a point he makes frequently throughout the book, and he actually gives you the experience as well, so you’re not working without an example. Here is a paraphrased summary:

Chapter 57: The Art of Schmoozing

1. Understand the goal : “Discover what you can do for someone else.”

2. Get out. You can’t schmooze from an office – meet people

3. Ask good questions then shut up.

4. Unveil Your Passions: Lead with your passion not just your business.

5. Read voraciously. You need a broad base of knowledge and the ability to access information.

6. Follow-up. Great schmoozers follow-up within 24 hours. Most people don’t follow-up at all.

7. Make it easy to get in touch. … don’t provide your contact info in gray 6-point type “This is great if you’re schmoozing teenagers, but if you want old rich, famous, and powerful people to call or e-mail, you’d better use a big font so they can read your business card.”

8. Give favors.

9. Ask for return of favors.

The conversation chapters are actually interviews that he’s done with a variety of experts in the field, like this one:

Q (Guy): How did we get to this place where presentations suck?

A (Garr Reynolds author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery): …There has been too much focus on the tools themselves. If people want to know how to make better slides, they should study books on graphic design and visual communication…

One of my favorite chapters is Chapter 24. In it he literally takes you through his low-cost, hi-impact launch of “Truemors.” I can’t even begin to tell you how turbo-loaded this was with lessons point by point. And it took something like 8 bullet points and a page and a half. He delivers his message like an Ad – one of those ads where they give you the number and then tell you what the number represents:

“0. I wrote zero business plans for it. The plan is simple. Get a site launched in a few months, see if people like it, and sell ads and sponsorships (or not).

7.5. Seven and a half weeks went from the time I registered the domain truemors.com until the site went live. This time is so short because the Open Source community has created gobs of great, free software that companies can use.”

Then he goes on to show how the site blitzed the internet with hundreds of thousands of page views in its first days. In addition to that, thumps the critics who say that he can do that because of his fame and his name by reminding everyone that it took 24 years to get there. What he’s saying is – I’m telling you who I am and what I did and how I did it. You can waste your time criticizing or you can get moving – your choice.

So if you’re wondering whether you should choose Reality Check – don’t. Get it, get it now and keep it forever.

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About the Author: Ivana Taylor has spent over 20 years helping industrial organizations and small business owners get and keep their ideal customers. Her company is Third Force and she writes a blog called Strategy Stew. She is co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers.”

Ivana is a member of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.