BF2S Forums BF3s Book Club

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

Flaming_Maniac wrote:

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Outliers: The Story of Success

Recommend

Malcom Gladwell, someone I would consider to be a contemporary genius, has also written The Tipping Point and Blink, the likes of which I hope most of you are familiar with. In a similar style Gladwell takes on the idea of success this time, taking some common and some uncommon examples of what most would consider success and examines just what exactly made them successful. Was it innate talent that made the Beatles what they were, or did they just play an awful lot? Are the players on the Canadian junior hockey leagues really the premiere, up and coming stars, or is the country using only roughly half of their talent? These are the kinds of specific examples Gladwell brilliantly uses to show us that while there are very specific, measurable variables that cause success at the micro level with little doubt, these same principles can apply at a macro scale as well. If taken to heart, the ideas put for can and should change the way society looks at success, to make more people more successful more often.

Quite frankly, if you have not bought this book or other books by this author, you are in for a treat. His books are stimulating and thoroughly entertaining, often in the same style of Freakonomics of taking seemingly obtuse example and making a very clear case out of it. It's a fairly short read, but one that will keep you entertained from cover to cover while giving you ideas that if taken to heart could very well change your outlook on life for the better.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ … k_code=as1

I just finished reading this book a few days ago.  Calling Gladwell a contemporary genius would be a stretch lol.  The book is a light read and Gladwell's ideas are written very clearly and easy to understand.  I would classify the idea of this book as, "something obviously true that you've thought about before" but Gladwell does do a thorough job making it simple and easy to understand.  I kind of found myself saying, "Duh" a lot during the reading.  To me this book is interesting not for the main point it puts across (that there are many factors besides will, drive and intelligence that shape "outliers") but more for the lessons we learn from stories of sucess and how we can apply them in different arenas.  Gladwell uses an example of a Korean Airlines crash to explain how Korean cultural attitudes needed to be addressed and updated for the 21st century and I think this idea and others mentioned in the book could be applied to many different areas of our own culture and institutions.  In that regard I think the value of the book is not in the explanation of steps to success but in the way we can apply the lessons to other areas of life and interaction.

I recommend the book to all because it is a good read, I just don't worship the ground that Gladwell walks on like FM

Next up is a re-read of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (mostly because I've run out of new books at this moment).

destruktion_6143 wrote:

Spandau Pheonix by Greg Ilse. very very very good read if you are into WW2 history.

Aries_37 wrote:

IG-Calibre wrote:

at the minute i'm half way through "Lords of the bow" the 2nd book in Conn Iggulden's fictional trilogy about Genghis Khan, and it's brilliant, i'd highly recommend  "emperor " his fictional series about the life of Julius Caesar.  10/10 all the way..

http://www.conniggulden.com

Also  Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander" series is well worth a visit too

http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm

the khan trilogy are better than the roman ones imo

Kmarion wrote:

I am starting this tonight.

What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
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The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe

Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true

...prophets of America's future. He reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States.

By 1848 America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.

A dystopian themed novel following in the footsteps of Orwell's 1984, Oryx and Crake investigates the moral and ethical problems that come with unrivaled technological advancement. The protagonist, Snowman, is found at the opening of the novel in a world completely destroyed where he may be the last human alive. As the story continues, it turns out that Snowman was once the boy Jimmy who grew up in a world dominated by massive corporations, unharnessed capitalism, and boundless genetic advancement. However, despite all the technological wonders, Jimmy has a front row seat to the unraveling of the world through the very process that should have saved them all