Books

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant -- in the blink of an eye -- that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while other are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts to win, while other end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work -- in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" -- filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

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When The Moviegoer was first published in 1961, it won the National Book Award and established Walker Percy as one of the supplest and most deftly modulated new voices in Southern literature. In his portrait of a boyish New Orleans stockbroker wavering between ennui and the longing for redemption, Percy managed to combine Bourbon Street elegance with the spiritual urgency of a Russian novel.

On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is adrift. He occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a quest -- a harebrained search for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin, Kate, and send him reeling through the gaudy chaos of the French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.

It is always nice when you happen upon a good book for reasons different from usual. I was playing around on the internet, as I have been known to do, and followed a trail of "if you like this, try this....if you like that one, try this one" and that lead me to Mr. Walker Percy. The man has written a plethora of books, why did I choose this one? Why did I choose a book called The Moviegoer? I am not even going to dignify that with a response.

I liked it, but not as much as I feel I could have. I need to apologize to Mr. Percy for not giving his book the attention I feel it deserved. Weighing in at fewer than 250 pages, the book is not a long one. I think this book is best served up to someone who has the time to read this in no more than just a few days. I have been quite busy of late and have not had the time to allocate to reading. My schedule did not do the book justice. Some readers will be able to finish it in just a few short hours, I am slower; a few days is more realistic.

I found myself picking up the book and having no idea what had just happened before the last time I put it down. That is to no fault of the author. In reality the book flowed very well. I have had too much on my mind. Save this one until you have the appropriate time to read, but it was very good and I think you should read it.

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