My favourite things #2 - Malcolm Gladwell

For those of you who don't know already, I am really really into reading books :) My mum says that I've been reading books ever since I could well....read. Haha.

Anyways, so I generally like reading social science books, philosophy books, art books, mystery novels and classics - although occasionally I delve into mainstream books like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey ;)

So today I thought I would introduce you to one of my favourite authors - Malcolm Gladwell! I have read all four of his books and loved them ALL.



Gladwell is a quite prominent social science author - he writes about his theories on why things are the way they are. By that I don't mean like, why the sky is blue etc, but things like why Asians are better at Maths (yeh, there's an actual theory to this lol - read it in Outliers).



(I read his last book "What the Dog Saw" while I was travelling around Europe and must've given it away because my bag was getting too heavy!)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed all this books, Outliers is definitely my favourite. It was the book that introduced me to Gladwell and I'm sure glad it did.





Outliers is a book which explains why certain people are "outliers" in our society - successful people from sportsmen to Bill Gates and how they came to be so "successful".





Blink is about perception and how within the blink of an eye, our brain can register information through our sub-conscience - so what we would call "our gut feeling"





The Tipping Point is about what makes something go from being ordinary, to something special - like a viral video!



(Me reading "What the Dog Saw" in Florence....it did exist....just don't know where it is now! Hopefully somewhere in Europe :P)



Lastly, What the Dogs Saw is actually a collection of articles that Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker, which has really interesting theories, such as why smart people are overrated and what makes someone choose someone for a particular job.

So why do I like these books? Well firstly, Gladwell has quite a casual writing style which makes you feel like he's standing right front of you telling you his theory. The amount of research he has done for his books is just amazing and just the way he presents his ideas in such a convincing fashion is superb - to me they don't seem like theories, but actual FACTS. Now that's some convincing :)

So if you're in need of an enjoyable book which will bring insight into the ins and outs of what shapes modern society, I suggest you go get yourself one of Gladwell's books and have a relaxing read.

D xx

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You can purchase Gladwell's books at Book Depository :) If you haven't used Book Depository before, it's a UK based website with books at excellent prices and FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE! I use to buy from it all the time (before I got my iPad).