Jusreddit - one-minute book review for busy folk
I think I was the last person I know to read this. Malcolm Gladwell, big-haired prophet of New York, bursts out long and eruditely about the “little things that make big differences”, touching on the realms of syphilis, guns, the American Civil War and footwear.
I read it at the same time as Blink, his follow-up. Blink is written in a similar style, but less interesting. It’s about first impressions. I couldn’t make up my mind if he’d made up his mind about whether he’d found out that first impressions are important or not important. I think, in summary, they’re sometimes important. It was, however, the less worthy of the two editions. You can read more about Blink here.
The Tipping Point is social science, pop psychology and the kind of book I’d love to have written myself, for no other reason than the author comes across as remarkably intelligent. The style is breezy. You’ll read it in a few days. Were it not for the buckets and buckets of research (including some interesting first-hand endeavours) you’d think he’d put it together in a couple of weekends.
Gladwell has tried to leave his mark on the Noughties vocabulary with a few novel turns of phrase. He names his concepts and their actors. He’s succeeded in leaving his mark. Highly recommended.
Buy it or read more at Amazon.co.uk
or