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I just read Outliers. It was good. Really good. One of the few times in my life that I've actually enjoyed a non-fiction book. It challenged my world view, and that's what books are supposed to do, isn't it? They're supposed to make you question everything that you've taken for granted, and, well, change things. That was deep.
It made me question my attitudes towards school a lot. I remember, the last time I could have been considered to be good at math was 7th grade. I would always finish my tests and homework last, and I kind of thought that it was bad, that there was something wrong with me because it took me so long. That was addressed in the book. I remember some teacher (okay, I'm 95% sure of who it was) saying something about student's motivation and rice paddies, and there was a whole chapter devoted to that. There was a lot about the lucky break, and how sometimes the lucky break isn't just one thing, it's a lot of things that happen to line up. I remember reading something about how babies born in November and December tend to be less successful later in life, and the article I read attributed it to the number of babies concieved by younger parents on prom night. This though, said that it was the number of January 1st cut off dates that made the difference. Since the cut off date for starting kindergarten in Michigan is December 1st, my brother started kindergarten a year later than I did, and he went to school all day. I started kindergarten when I should have and went to school for a half day. If we follow the logic in this book, it's no wonder that it took me so much longer to learn how to read.
In short, this was awesome. I read it straight through, except for the three times when I thought I should go to sleep, turned out the light, rolled over, closed my eyes, decided that sleep wasn't going to happen any time soon, and started reading again.