'Outliers'

For my birthday my dad bought me three books. The first I've already started reading, is the latest from Malcolm Gladwell. I enjoyed 'Blink' so much I'd go straight onto this one before the work of another author.

'Blink' went on to discuss the mechanics of emotion and how the muscles of the face's reaction to a feeling, displaying emotion, is linked to the bodies reaction and how if a person manipulates those muscles, effectively recreating the combination of movements that form the facial expression displaying anger, the body will react as if the person is actually angry, ie. their heart rate will increase and palms will sweat, the person will grow disorientated and find it harder to think rationally. Similarly, if a person watches a comedy with a pencil between their teeth, prohibiting their muscles from forming a smile, the person will react differently to normal, finding it less funny.

It also discussed the workings of Autistic minds, "mind-reading" (forming and reading facial expressions) and the theory of the state of 'arousal'. Using policemen as examples, Gladwell talks about the rush of adrenaline in vital situations when your heart rate increases, causing your brain to shut down and block out what it deems unnecessary information. During this state of arousal, a police officer can block out surrounding noise/gunfire, focus onto people or objects with enhanced vision and experience a slow-down of time. However, if the arousal increases, so does the heart-rate and brain's reaction, which can shut down so many parts of your brain that you can become effectively useless, even to the point of having no control over your body, unintentionally voiding your bowels and not being able to move or act.

His next book, 'Outliers', tackles the circumstances of success, "changing the way we think about what makes us unique". The first few chapters are dedicated to introducing how he's going to achieve this, beginning with 'proving' how what month you're born in proves vital to your success as an sportsman. Gladwell claimes that this 'evidence' "tells us that our notion that it is the best and the brightest who effortlessly rise to the top is much too simplistic."

Again, it's a very innovative and original idea, using other peoples work, theory and discoveries to build on and strengthen his own.

I particularly like a quote from 'the Times' on the back of this book. "He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than that he's a genius."