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February 11, 2005
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
I finished Blink last week. It's the follow-up to The Tipping Point - a book about epidemics (good and bad). Blink is essentially about the decision making process and understanding what underlies our gut instinct, and our ability to make snap judgements. Gladwell explores many aspects of society and culture to make his points - these range from Kenna (a semi-pop act), Amadou Diallo shootings, autism, sitcoms to research into inter-personal relationships and many, many more areas.
He's an enjoyable author, and very readable. This book basically reads like a long New Yorker or Harpers article - both things I enjoy on their own. It's just the type of book that this pseudo-culture addict and armchair anthropologist likes to read.
My one (minor, minor, minor) complaint is that the author personalizes everyone he spotlights in a semi-annoying manner. I won't quote anything here, but essentially his trick is to do something like this:
"Jim Johnson, a man with sparkling blue eyes and a tight-lipped smile, said ..."
It's a trick that most newspaper writers use on longer pieces to add depth or dimension to the topic or subjects. It's OK most of the time, but there are tons of subjects in this book, and he uses it without fail on every introduction.
You'll live with it. I did, and I enjoyed the bulk of the book despite it. You'll be sharing what you learned at parties and lunches for weeks to come.
Posted by tdotjay at February 11, 2005 4:32 PM
