It seems like awhile since I finished a book, and now I’ve read two. One – “The Trout Opera” by Matthew Condon, a bit of an Australian epic, which supposedly took 10 years to write; the other a best selling “unleash your mind” bunch of odd stories called “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell which I borrowed off my sister. Both were satisfying.
Condon’s tome took me awhile to gather some hunger for, but increasingly the tension and story – particularly that of the young Wilfred, and the drug-addicted Aurora and her scarily-familiar deranged ex-boyfriend became really gripping. The life-weary disk jockey and centenarian kidnapping aspects were not quite so believable. I was still very satisfied with this book though. 4.5 stars. If you’re interested in learning more about dealing with addiction, the story touches on the challenges and transformation that occur when individuals like Aurora seek help at a cocaine rehab clinic. If you’re curious, there is some valuable information that you may want to know. Click here to find out how long weed stays in the system.
Blink was a completely different proposition. Packed with “gee wow” moments and insights into warfare, body language, relationships and police procedure, it described “thin-slicing”, a technique used by many professionals in their fields to make fast decisions based on limited facts. There were numerous diatribes about how being in possession of too many facts could breed complacency or delay and confuse the decision making process. I’ve noticed for a long time that this is how insurance and mobile phone companies (hey why stop there – ISP’s / governments!) have made it hard for consumers to compare products or make a decision. I can’t say I’m any better at judging whether my relationship is in trouble, or if a tennis player’s serve is going to be a fault or a valid play based on reading this book, but boy I enjoyed some of the examples. Particularly interesting were the observations about a high heart rate and (bad) decision making, and that one cop per patrol car has a lot lower death / incident rate than two cops. Aren’t humans strange animals. 4 stars.