Book #1: Outliers

Title: Outliers: The Story of Success
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

I really, really like Malcolm Gladwell. His writing always draws me in. When I see an article in the New Yorker that he has written, I always make sure that I read it (even if it looks way too long). So it should come as no surprise that I took to Outliers like a duck to water. Eddie would tell you that I kept saying "I can't wait for you to read this" as I was reading. In the first section of the book we learn the best time of year to be born to be a Canadian hockey player, how much work goes into becoming a musical virtuoso, and the best year to be born to be titan of Industry or a software mogul. That part of the book is vintage Gladwell-- if you've read Blink or The Tipping Point, you know the drill.

The second half of the book is a little bit less closely tied to the title. He calls this section "Legacy" and I guess it's supposed to show what happens after outliers outlie. There are chapters on infighting in rural Appalachia, Korean plane crashes, and Gladwell's own personal story. They're all interesting, but it's a little harder to see them as part of the same story as the first half of the book.