I just finished reading, or rather listening to, “Blink: the power of thinking without thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve been driving 45 minutes each way to and from work for about ten years but I just now discovered audio books. They are great, but I do find that my mind wanders , on occasion, and I just have to turn off the book.
“Blink” is fascinating and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in human perception, decision-making, prejudice and psychology. Gladwell illustrates his points with a wide variety of examples including from the worlds of art and music, the military, emergency rooms and marketing. I was drawn to the book because as a curator and artist I am always dealing with visual perception and I tend to work on a subconscious, or rather intuitive, level. This split second and subconscious decision making is what the book is about.
Unfortunately, when my mind wanders with a paper book I’m still on the same page but with an audio book I have to backtrack to find where my attention left. All in all, though, I really enjoy the alternative to news and music. The Vigo County library is a great resource for audio books: I just checked out next months Swope Book Club read “The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece” by Jonathan Harr.
Happy driving and reading.
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