Books That Malcolm Gladwell Thinks Everyone Should

Read
Having sold more than 4.5 million books, Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most popular
authors alive.He's made a career revealing the hidden factors that affect our lives and
livelihoods for example, by unpacking the personality traits that made Steve Jobs and IKEA
founder Ingvar Kampran so outrageously successful. And like every great writer, Gladwell is a
great reader.After sifting through more than 10 years of columns and interviews with the
author, here are nine of the books that have influenced him the most.

'The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game' by Michael Lewis

For Gladwell, "The Blindside" is Lewis' best, a book that's "as close to perfect" as any work of
nonfiction. "Supposedly about football (the title refers to the side of the field a quarterback is
blind to)," he says, "it's actually an extraordinary story about love and redemption."
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession' by Janet Malcolm
Gladwell considers Janet Malcolm to be his other role model as nonfiction writer.
"I reread Malcolm's 'Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession' just to remind myself how
nonfiction is supposed to be done," Gladwell told The Times. He loves the confidence she
writes with. As he told the Longform podcast, Malcolm writes with the confidence that the
reader has no choice but to keep following along unlike how he fights for the reader's
attention with every sentence.
"Even when she is simply sketching out the scenery, you know that something wonderful and
thrilling is about to happen," Gladwell says.
The Person and the Situation' by Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross
Gladwell says that University of Michigan psychologist Richard Nisbett "basically gave me my
view of the world." "The Person and the Situation" is the book that most affected him.
He read it in one sitting in the summer of 1996. In his new forward for the book, Gladwell gave
a hint as to why it's so special: It offers a way of re-ordering ordinary experience.
Freakonomics' by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Aside from Gladwell, who else has made social science cool? The economist-and-writer
combination of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, naturally. Gladwell loved "Freakonomics."
"I don't need to say much here," Gladwell told The Week. "This book invented an entire genre.
Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining." Levitt and Dubner have since gone on
to show us how we too can "Think Like A Freak".