Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell might take offense, but in the airplane reading field at least, the New Yorker writer is the Dan Brown of nonfiction. A 2005 work on the power of snap judgments, Blink is filled with fascinating and entertaining facts and people: the tennis coach who can predict double faults before the serve is hit, the marriage counselor who can peg whether a couple will divorce in the first few minutes of talking to them. While the book makes for fascinating cocktail chatter, critics say the anecdotes don't support any larger theory. Still, it's a brainy airport buy that few readers second-guess.