Look! It’s Walter in glasses!
But, that’s not what this post is about. This is about my favorite season of the year: reading season. Yes, I read all year long…but the majority of my nose-in-bookiness gets accomplished May-September. Currently I’m in the middle of Contagious—a definite thumbs up for anyone interested in information and how it spreads (in person, on the web, etc.). So, here’s my list so far—would love to know what has made it onto yours…
1. Contagious by Jonah Berger ($16.12)- Why do some products get more word of mouth than others? Why does some online content go viral? Word of mouth makes products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. It’s more influential than advertising and far more effective. Read more…
2. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell ($27.99)- What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Read more…
3. A Discovery of Witches ($19.68)- Discovering a magical manuscript in Oxford’s library, scholar Diana Bishop, a descendant of witches who has rejected her heritage, inadvertently unleashes a fantastical underworld of daemons, witches and vampires whose activities center around an enchanted treasure. Read more….
4. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer ($15.99)- The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. InThe Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge. Read more…
(and in case you just can’t help yourself….you can see more of me torturing my dog here).
