Three Books

I got alot of books for Christmas. Here's three that were really good and I suggest reading.

Dancing Barefoot by Wil Wheaton. ISBN 0596006748. 116 pages.

This book is a collection of five short stories by Wil Wheaton, who is best known as Ensign Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I say five short stories lightly; it's really four really short stories followed by one much longer story. The four short ones are all things that happened during Wil's life, both before and after TNG but focusing on Wil as Wil. The long one is about his experiences doing TNG itself. Some are funny, some are sad. One is cute. This book took me about an hour and a half to read on Christmas evening at Cin's grandparents house. It was an excellent read and I highly recommend it. This book is one of two of Wil's published works, the other being Just a Geek, which I also received for Christmas but isn't to the top of the queue yet.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. ISBN 0316346624. 304 pages.

This book is all about how various things - ideas, trends, viruses, and so forth - tip, or hit that point where they just take off. There's three key factors into making something tip, "The Power of the Few", Something's "Stickiness", and "The Power of Context." The power of the few is important - some people's opinions matter more than most peoples'. There are three types of people that matter the most, Connectors - who know vast numbers of people from all different social circles, Mavens - who stay up-to-date on current happenings and supply information on "things" willingly (these are the Consumer Reports-type people) and Salesman - who are really good at influencing people. Stickiness is a simple concept to understand - the presentation of ideas, as well as the idea itself, can be tweaked in very small ways that make the idea so much more appealing. The power of context is also simple - the context an idea is received in changes ones perception of it. All-in-all, this book was really good. The best part about it is that Gladwell uses real-world examples all over the places to explain things. He'll use an example to illustrate an idea, then talk about the idea, and then use more examples to drive it home. Really good writing. Highly recommend. The book took about four or five hours of serious reading - it goes fast though and it was easy to understand as I went along. The most interesting part for me was the section on the three types of people that matter in making an idea tip - now I know that I'm a Maven (with some Connector properties). :)

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt. ISBN 0691122946. 80 pages.

This is one of the shortest books I've ever read. It's written by a professor at Princeton University. It is an academic examination of bullshit - what is it and what role does it play in language and modern communication. It's not intended to be funny, but a serious examination of the role of bullshit in moden culture. It's a very short read - took about thirty minutes (it's only 67 pages of text and the book is very tiny - it's only 6.4 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches). Nevertheless, it has got alot of good content in it and really makes one think seriously about both lying and bullshitting and how they are very different, both in goals and in effects. It was a very good examination of the subject and worth reading for anyone. Highly recommend.