there is a small thread hanging off the world

from last year, but worth recommending:

- The tipping point: how little things can make a big difference / Malcolm Gladwell
- Blink : the power of thinking without thinking / Malcolm Gladwell
- Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything / Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- Animals In Translation : Using The Mysteries Of Autism To Decode Animal Behavior / Temple Grandin And Catherine Johnson

All of these books are great reads that can open your eyes to things going on around you that you weren't noticing or weren't thinking about, but probably should be. I really like books that make me go "Huh - I hadn't thought about that. How interesting!" We found all four worth adding to our library.


- Slam dunks and no-brainers words : language in your life, the media, business, politics, and, like, whatever / Leslie Savan
This one should have fallen into the above group, but didn't for some reason. It had really interesting bits, but I think it got redundant after the first third. I skimmed through the second half to get the highlights because I wanted to hear what she had to say, but it was beginning to be a chore to read the whole work. This might have been better presented as a series of essays or without quite so much depth in each of the sections - make the point, give some examples, and move on.

Our UK edition of HP6 arrived yesterday, four days earlier than Amazon.UK's estimate. Yay!

I managed to get up to chapter 6 before dsrtao got home and took it over.

Ah well. At his regular rate of 150 pages/hr and his more copius reading time, I shouldn't have to wait too long to pick it up again.