Sooooo… This could hypothetically be a good year for reading. I have just finished two more books that I was reading...simultaneously! Unbelievable I did not know I could read anymore but denying myself the newspapers and news might have been healthy. So two books… “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell… arguably non fiction and “The Unknowns” by Gabriel Roth. I had read another of Gladwell's books but never one of his big insight books like “The Outliers”. I had never read the Roth guy before. I think it might be his first book.
“David and Goliath” was really good. It starts with the the recounting of the Biblical story of…. David and Goliath. It is all based on the premise that we look at a lot of things wrong. In regard to David and Goliath we are talking about the view that David, over unbelievable odds pulled off this miracle slaying of Goliath. Gladwell informs us that the story could not have ended any other way. A talented guy with a sling can land it on a face 200 yards away and Goliath (and King Saul) were all expecting a hand to hand battle. So David did not wine because of God or destiny. He one because he was thinking of a different battle, he prepared for that battle and he destroyed his opponent… who according to Gladwell, never had a chance.
Gladwell then goes on to give a bunch more examples of this type of thinking from classroom size, to money and parenting, successful dyslexics and underdog teams. The premise is that adversity can be an advantage. I like books like this because they make me think but… from my limited perspective he draws well researched examples and uses them to illustrate whatever point he is trying to make. This is one of the reasons that demagogues like Glenn Beck LOVE Gladwell because he, like they, uses these examples to support their false narratives. I don’t know whether Gladwell is right but it gets pedantic and uninteresting as he pulls aberrant examples of things which in his mind disprove the norm. Not a bad read but… miss it.
The second book however is excellent fiction read. Gabriel Roth has written what I think is his debut called “The Unknowns”. It is the story of a nerd and it is a pretty good one. It opens with the nerd who has killed it with a start up going to a party and in attempting to meet the love of his life ends up going home and doing ecstasy with the girl he did not mean to be with. I have no experience with that particular drug but from his description of how it felt when he was done, it seems like something for an old man to avoid.
The book flashes back to how he got molded into a dot.com millionaire with his high school nerd friend and all the social awkwardness and family problems that damaged him but eventually he finds (stalks) the aformentioned girl of his dreams. She is indeed the girl of his dreams but like everyone has some damaged baggage. He handles the difficulties related with the trust issues involved in every relationship… not so well.
It is well written and a good read and of the two books if I was looking to get outside my life (and I always am) I would recommend the Roth book. Read, have fun. Be a human being. It could still happen. Even for you.
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