Herb Cohen may be a good negotiator, but his writing leaves a lot to be desired. It was often hard to sift out the points he was making from the huge volume of anecdotes and jokes. A lot of the material seems really dated because Cohen repeatedly refers to "Soviet" tactics. But the book was written in 1980, so I can excuse some of that.

There is some good material here. Cohen explains quite a bit about how various tactics work. If you're aware that someone is trying something (for example, stalling to increase pressure, or drawing out a negotiation so that you're invested in seeing it come to a conclusion) you can respond to it better.

A lot of emphasis is put on actually removing the adversarial nature of the negotiating process, and finding ways in which the deal can meet the needs of all parties concerned. Thinking in those directions may help me in future salary negotiations, if not in my carpet-trading.