Pragmatics of Human Communication

"Called “one of the best books ever about human communication,” and a perennial bestseller, Pragmatics of Human Communication has formed the foundation of much contemporary research into interpersonal communication, in addition to laying the groundwork for context-based approaches to psychotherapy." With a summary like that, I think I absolutely have to add it to the list. Might make me a better HN commenter, too. Thanks!

I don't know about "so far in 2024" but Pragmatics of Human Communication by Watzlawick et. al. is great: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393710595. Its sequel Change is also great: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393707069, though in my copy the opening 20 pages or so are printed at the end (as if the printing machine used a ring buffer). That is a pity because the Preface has one of the great openings of all time. I was paging through the entire book looking for it—I'd read it years ago and remembered it being at the beginning, which it is, except the beginning was at the end in this copy.