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  & 3 users

• Current

Type: educational

Status: to read

Author: Steven Pinker

Tags: psychology philosophy nonfiction linguistics

2007-11-07

  & 4 users

• Current

Type: documentary

Status: liked

Author: Bill Bryson

2007-11-07

  & 75 users

• Current

Type: scientific

Status: I recommend

Author: Malcolm Glaswell

Description: "The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers,"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.

Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name....

2007-02-12

• Current

Type: religious

Status: finished

Author: Harold Bloom

Description: Bloom’s occasional forays into religious criticism are particularly interesting, given hisBloom’s occasional forays into religious criticism are particularly interesting, given his lifelong passion for poetry and his contributions to the study of literature. And while discussions of religion itself are in play here, it is the characters of Jesus and Yahweh that inhabit the pages, and Bloom’s literary critic more than his moonlighting theologian examining them. And what of that analysis? Bloom has an obvious affinity for Yahweh over Jesus (even though Jesus gets first billing in the book’s title.) But to ascribe that preference to his Jewish roots is perhaps too easy. A close reading reveals more. Bloom finds that Yahweh, with his covenants, tempers, resolutions, and even occasional forays into the physical where he fights, eats and walks in the cool of the Garden presents a more interesting character than the rather enigmatic Jesus who only comes truly alive for him in Mark’s gospel, and even more so beyond the canonical scriptures in the Gospel of Thomas. And though in sensibility and identification Bloom hews closer to Yahweh, he acknowledges the place Jesus and his followers have made in the world, through an application of his own theory of the anxiety of influence, noting that "The New Testament frequently is a strong misreading of the Hebrew Bible, and certainly it has persuaded multitudes." Provocative statements like these abound, but Bloom is no provocateur. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his meditations on the names divine, it is hard not to respect his vigorous intellect and bracing candor as he explores their power.--Ed Dobeas ...

2006-06-13

  & 108 users

• Current

Type: educational

Status: I recommend

Authors: Stephen J. Dubner Steven D. Levitt

2006-06-13

  & 15 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Jodi Picoult

Tags: moral society youth medical ethics obligations

2005-11-16

  & 10 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Neil Gaiman

2005-10-03

  & 12 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: Anne McCaffrey

2005-09-10

  & 4 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: liked

Author: Piers Anthony

2005-09-10

  & 7 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: Piers Anthony

2005-09-10

  & 4 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: Piers Anthony

2005-09-10

  & 5 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: R.A. Salvatore

2005-09-10

  & 7 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: R.A. Salvatore

2005-09-10

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: R.A. Salvatore

2005-09-10

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: R.A. Salvatore

2005-09-10

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: R.A. Salvatore

2005-09-10

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Authors: Anne McCaffrey Michael Whelan

Tags: fantasy pern dragons

2005-09-10

  & 9 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Tad Williams

Tags: fantasy

2005-09-10

  & 7 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: I recommend

Author: Christopher Moore

Tags: humor

2005-09-04

  & 13 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: Bill Watterson

Tags: calvin_and_hobbes comic

2005-09-04