Closing the Chapter that was June

(See what I did there? Since my goal for the month was reading)

All puns aside, I’m a bit disappointed with my progress in June. I only ended up completing two books, one of which was given to me by my mother. And just yesterday she told me that she gave me the wrong book having mixed up the title of the one she gave with another by the same author. So that was a definite flop.

But, on the bright side, I read two more books than I did in May so that’s still something and I’m in the middle of reading three other books. The books I’m currently reading are: How to Use Your Eyes by James Elkins, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music by Anna Johansson, Maria Eriksson, Patrick Vonderau, Pelle Snickars, and Rasmus Fleischer. The first book was recommended to me by my friend Yaz. So, if you have any book recommendations please let me know! I’m going to continue my reading goal for July as well. But I will decrease my pages per day goal to 15 pages in the hopes that it will be an easier target to reach.

Now for a quick review on the one book I read and liked this month.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I would say that Gladwell is most well-known for his book Outliers, in which he lays out the 10,000 hours principle—the idea that you must practice something for a cumulative total of 10,000 hours to become an expert in it. However, I found this book very enjoyable as well. It’s about the decisions we make in a split-second, hence the name Blink. Gladwell explains that our gut instincts are often an accumulation of expertise and observations we have made over a lifetime, not just hunches, which is what makes them so accurate. For example, physiologist John Gottman can predict with over 90% accuracy whether or not a couple will divorce in the next few years just by listening in to less than a minute of their conversation. As Gladwell explains, this prediction is not just a mere feeling, it comes from his hours of research and his ability to pick up on cues to contempt, such as eye-rolling, which are a strong indicator of marriage instability. This is just one example of what Gladwell untangles in his book. Aside from the topic being quite fascinating, Gladwell has a way of breaking down complex topics and distilling them in a manor that is incredibly clear and engaging. I found it a pretty quick and very interesting read and would definitely recommend it.

I hope you all are having a lovely summer and I can’t wait to start on my July project soon!