Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

Book 2

It is absolutely no surprise to me that 23 days into January I have only finished two books.  I can't get off the Internet long enough to watch TV, let alone read a book.  Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, has been on my shelf for about ever.  I pulled it down because some friends chose it for a Book Club pick. 

It is a study of the split-second decisions we make.  Conscious or unconscious, good or bad and how they happen.  There are several case studies, including that of Amadou Diallo, the immigrant from Guinea who was shot to death by police in New York in 1999.  Gladwell does an excellent job of breaking down how such a horrible, horrible thing could happen, and how it might be prevented in the future.

Interestingly, several chapters included things I have learned in school over the last couple of years.  One was about a company that set up testing that tries to determine unconscious prejudices.  I remember going online and trying it, and I could swear that I wrote about it, but I can't find the entry.  Another was about New Coke.

I don't want to do much more analyzing before the Book Club discussion, but suffice it to say that I liked this one.

And now I shall go to Paradise Lost.  But only because I can be reading that along with the Internet.