Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success was a very quick read.

I was not thrilled to read this book but decided to read it only after a friend loaned it to me.

I would rank the quality Gladwell’s books in the same order they were published: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and way behind is Outliers: The Story of Success.

Outliers just seemed so contrived.

While each story was interesting, they didn’t seem to quite fit into a coherent argument. It felt like Gladwell was trying to turn what should have been a simple article for the New York Times (not even an article for the New York Times Magazine) into a bestselling book.

Also, some of the stories — particularly the one about the health of residents of Roseto, PA — are well known to the public, which made it seem like Gladwell was trying even harder to make a book out of a simple essay.

So while I think that folks should read The Tipping Point and maybe even Blink for the educational value, I highly recommend that you not bother with Outliers.

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success

As I anticipated, Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success has quickly become a bestseller.

I have caved and decided to read it even though I thought The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking both started off good but lost momentum part way through the book.

Both those books seem like they could have each been condensed into fantastic New York Times Magazine articles and left at that.

Will write more once I start this book….

Book Club Trouble

I found “Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?” by Joanne Kaufman published December 5, 2008 in the New York Times very interesting:

“Who knew a book group could be such a soap opera?” said Barb Burg, senior vice president at Bantam Dell, which publishes many titles adopted by book groups. “You’d think it would just be about the book. But wherever I go, people want to talk to me about the infighting and the politics.”

I am a member of several online book clubs and while I haven’t actually fought with anyone about the book selections I too have been disappointed by some of my book club’s selections.

But since they are all online books, I don’t feel guilty skipping a book or two or just staying quiet when everyone else loves a book that I hated (or vice versa).

Any thoughts on book clubs?