Malcolm Gladwell
I picked up Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell and couldn't put it down. I recommended it to all my friends and found myself constantly referencing it. The following week, I picked up Outliers and then Blink. I love how Gladwell structures his books like one large case study, with smaller, fascinating stories woven throughout. Learning about the psychology behind people's actions or how their heritage influences their lives captivated me. I found myself applying his conclusions to my own life and couldn’t stop sharing these new insights with my friends.
The psychology angle especially intrigued me because of my background in Public Relations. Gladwell's work helped me understand human behavior in ways that aligned with what I was learning in my classes. His books are full of those "aha" moments that make you see the world differently.
At one point, I lent my copy of Talking To Strangers to a close friend. We’d have occasional chats about the chapters she was reading and she told me that she appreciated the parts I had highlighted. This was one of the best compliments she gave me, for I’ve always been slightly insecure about my annotation skills.
While I reference Talking To Strangers the most, Outliers is my favorite. It made me wonder how much of my own family’s history has shaped who I am today. My parents would often point out personality traits in my siblings and me that reminded them of other family members, and after reading Outliers, I started paying even more attention to these connections. It also made me want to explore my heritage, culture, and ancestry further. My whole life, I’ve identified as Filipina, yet I’ve only scratched the surface of my culture. Outliers inspired me to learn more.
Blink took me the longest to read, but only because I was in the midst of graduating and moving back home. I finally finished it right before leaving for a two-month summer trip to Europe, where I recommended Gladwell's books to pretty much everyone I met. Writing this now has reminded me that it’s time to pick up another one of his books soon!
One of my reading habits is to rotate between a few books at once. If you decide to read Gladwell, I recommend pairing his work with another book where you can apply his conclusions. For example, I read Dune by Frank Herbert while reading Talking To Strangers, Dune Messiah alongside Outliers, and Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski while reading Blink. This method really gets you thinking more deeply about both the stories and the facts on the page.
Gladwell has a way of making his readers think critically about the psychology of themselves and others. He tells compelling stories that force you to empathize with real-world cases. I think everyone should pick up a Malcolm Gladwell book at some point, and he's definitely one of my top three favorite authors.
