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9 Books That Everyone Should Read, According to Malcolm Gladwell

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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

Gladwell says that Moneyball and Flash Boys author Michael Lewis is “the finest storyteller of our generation.”

He considers him a role model.

“I read Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods,” he told the New York Times. “I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like.”

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.”

Buy it here.

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.

Buy it here.

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.

We see things that aren’t there and we make predictions that we ought not to make: we privilege the “person” and we discount the influence of the “situation.”

It speaks, in short, to the very broadest questions of human perception.

Gladwell says that if you read that book, then you’ll see template of the genre that his books belong to.

Buy it here.

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 Freakread our interview with Levitt here.

Buy it here.

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin

Amazon has about 13,000 books about CEOs.

Gladwell says you really only need to read one, The Opposable Mind, by University of Toronto management professor Roger Martin.

The book “explores what makes great CEOs stand out from their peers,” Gladwell says. “I realize that there are thousands of business books on the subject, but, trust me, this is the first to really answer the question.”

Martin knows what he’s talking about — in his 15 years of serving as the dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School, Fortune says that he turned “a small, irrelevant Canadian B-school to a legitimate global player.”

Buy it here.

Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt

Written by Slate columnist Tom Vanderbilt, Traffic investigates human nature from beyond the driver’s seat.

Gladwell says that Traffic is “one of the heirs to the Freakonomics legacy.”

Vanderbilt, “a very clever young writer, tells us all sorts of things about what driving says about us,” Gladwell says. “I kept waiting for the moment when my interest in congestion and roads would run its course. It never did.”

Buy it here.

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

When Gladwell reads for pleasure, it’s almost always a spy novel.

He’s read hundreds of them.

When the New York Times asked him if he could suggest any book to Barack Obama, he said that it would obviously be the new Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series.

“It might be nice for [Obama] to escape for a few hours to a world where one man can solve every one of the world’s problems with nothing but his wits and his fists,” Gladwell said.

Buy it here.

Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb

Gladwell likes to write about compellingly cantankerous people. As of late, he’s argued that the job of managers is to “harbor and protect obnoxious and brilliant people.”

Early in his writing career, he found such a subject in controversial investor-philosopher Nassim Taleb.

In a New Yorker profile of Taleb, Gladwell said that Taleb’s first book, Fooled by Randomness, is “to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses were to the Catholic Church.”

Buy it here.

Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man by Garry Wills

Gladwell has said that he’d never try to write about politics because there are already so many fantastic political writers.

He cites the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills and his presidential biography, Nixon Agonistes, as a primary case study.

“A classic from the early ’70s by one of the great political writers of his time,” Gladwell said. “Written just before Richard Nixon resigned, it’s as devastating a portrait of him as has ever been written.”

Buy it here.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider

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  • LIST: The 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time

    The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. A coming-of-age novel (illustrated by Ellen Forney) illuminates family and heritage through young Arnold Spirit, torn between his life on a reservation and his largely white high school. The specifics are sharply drawn, but this novel, with its themes of self-discovery, speaks to young readers everywhere. Buy now: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time IndianLittle, Brown
    Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling. What more can be said about this iconic franchise? How about this: seven years after the final volume was published, readers young and old still go crazy at the slightest rumor of a new Potter story. Buy now: Harry Potter (series)Bloomsbury Publishing
    The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. For many young readers, this novel provides their first in-depth contemplation of the Holocaust. Although terror surrounds Liesel, a young German girl, so too does evidence of friendship, love and charity—redeeming lights in the darkness. Buy now: The Book ThiefAlfred A. Knopf
    A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. This surrealist adventure has provided generations of children with their first-ever mind-blowing experiences, as Meg travels across the fifth dimension in search of her father. But the sci-fi also has a message: Meg learns self-sufficiency and bravery in the process. Buy now: A Wrinkle in TimeFarrar, Straus and Giroux
    Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White. Readers are still drawn to the simplicity and beauty of arachnid Charlotte’s devotion to her pig pal Wilbur. Though family farms may be less common than they were in 1952, E.B. White’s novel remains timeless for its enduring meditation on the power of friendship and of good writing. Buy now: Charlotte's WebHarper & Brothers
    Holes, by Louis Sachar. A story of a family curse, fancy sneakers and poisonous lizards moves forward and backward through time, telling of how Stanley Yelnats IV ended up in a juvenile prison camp. It’s an introduction to complex narrative, suffused with fun, warmth and a truly memorable villain. Buy now: HolesFarrar, Straus and Giroux
    Matilda, by Roald Dahl. With apologies to the lovable Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this may be Roald Dahl’s most compelling read for young people. Poor Matilda feels thwarted and ignored by her family—a sense that many preteens share. They don’t share her magical powers, but that’s the enduring appeal of this escapist frolic. Buy now: Matilda Jonathan Cape
    The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. Published when the author was just 18, this coming-of- age novel offers proof that even the youngest writer can provide valuable insight. Her striking look at Ponyboy and gang life in the 1960s has resonated for decades with readers of all kinds, whether they identify more with the Greasers or the Socs. Buy now: The OutsidersViking Press, Dell Publishing
    The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. In a witty, sharp fairy tale that illuminates language and mathematics through a picaresque story of adventure in the Kingdom of Wisdom, Jules Feiffer’s whimsical drawings do as much as Juster’s plain-language interpolations of complex ideas to carry readers through Digitopolis and the Mountains of Ignorance. Buy now: The Phantom TollboothRandom House
    The Giver, by Lois Lowry. This tale of self-discovery in a dystopian society has a memorable central character, Jonas, and an indelible message— that pain and trauma have an important place in individual lives and in society, and to forget them is to lose what makes us human. Buy now: The GiverHoughton Mifflin
    Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume. Twelve-year-old Margaret, whose mother is Christian and father Jewish, explores her religious heritage while overcoming the general social and personal challenges of a preteen girl. Buy now: Are You There God? It's Me, MargaretYearling
    To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Scout Finch grows up in the racially charged Depression-era South where her father, the lawyer Atticus Finch, is defending a black man accused of raping a young white woman. Buy now: To Kill a MockingbirdHarperCollins
    Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor. A black family in the depression era American south grapples with racism. Buy now: Roll of Thunder, Hear My CryDial Press
    Anne of Green Gables (series), by L.M. Montgomery. Young spirited Anne moves in with foster parents and adapts to her new home in Green Gables. Buy now: Anne of Green Gables (series)L.C. Page & Co.
    The Chronicles of Narnia (series), by C.S. Lewis. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, four siblings evacuated from London during World War II, enter the magical world of Narnia where they are charged with saving the realm from the evil White Witch. Buy now: The Chronicles of Narnia (series)Geoffrey Bles
    Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. A fictional account of an African American teenager on trial for felony murder in New York, written in a mix of first-person journal entries and a third-person screenplay. Buy now: MonsterHarperCollins
    The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman. Young Lyra Belacqua leads a battle in the arctic to save children who were kidnapped and severed from their animal soul mates in this fantastical world that spawned a trilogy and a 2007 feature film. Buy now: The Golden CompassScholastic Point
    The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Frank's innocuous and relatable musings while hiding under Nazi occupation capture the tragedy of the Nazi regime. Buy now: The Diary of a Young GirlBantam
    From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. Claudia Kincaid, a precocious sixth-grader, and her 9-year-old brother Jamie run away from home in the suburbs of New York City and head for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they explore the exhibits and research the mystery of a newly acquired marble angel whose sculptor is unknown. Buy now: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. FrankweilerAtheneum Books
    Looking for Alaska, by John Green. Miles Halter attends boarding school in Alabama for his junior year, where he navigates the alcohol-infused social scene of high school and falls in love with an enigmatic girl named Alaska. Buy now: Looking for AlaskaSpeak
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. A young boy with autism investigates the murder of a neighbor’s dog and in so doing explores the travails and contradictions of everyday life from an outsider’s perspective. Buy now: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeDoubleday
    Little House on the Prairie (series), by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The books that spawned a literary and television franchise were based on Wilder’s own experience growing up in the Midwest in the late 19th century. Buy now: Little House on the Prairie (series)Harper and Brothers
    The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. A doll rabbit’s misfortune-plagued journey from one owner to another teaches him to care for and love others. Buy now: The Miraculous Journey of Edward TulaneCandlewick
    Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. August Pullman, who has a rare cranial deformity, decides to stop being homeschooled and attend Beecher Prep for middle school, but he is forced to overcome bullying and name-calling from some of his peers. Buy now: WonderKnopf Books
    The Sword in the Stone (The Once and Future King series), by T.H. White. White gives the untold story of the legendary King Arthur’s childhood and his training under the wizard Merlyn in this 1938 classic. Buy now: The Sword in the Stone (The Once and Future King series)Collins
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    Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. The four March sisters grow up in an impoverished New England household during the Civil War. Buy now: Little WomenRoberts Brothers
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Huck Finn and the escaped slave Jim travel down the Mississippi in this literary classic. Buy now: The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnChatto & Windus
    The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins sets off on an adventure through Tolkien’s ingenious world in the prelude to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Buy now: The HobbitGeorge Allen & Unwin
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank L. Baum. Dorothy is swept from her Kansas home to the Land of Oz in Baum’s 1900 novel that was successfully adapted for Broadway and film. Buy now: The Wonderful Wizard of OzGeorge M. Hill Company
    Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. The behavior of a group of boys marooned on an island devolves into primitive terror in this boundary-pushing classic. Buy now: Lord of the FliesFaber and Faber
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. Charlie Bucket explores the wonders of Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory. Buy now: Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryPenguin Books
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Alice wanders through a fantasy world of talking rabbits, royal playing cards and smoking caterpillars. Buy now: Alice's Adventures in WonderlandMacmillan
    Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson. Jesse becomes close friends with a new girl and fellow runner at school, but a heartbreaking tragedy in their secret invented world in the forest leaves him and the reader suffering. Buy now: Bridge to Terabithia Crowell
    The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Buck, a domesticated dog in California, is stolen and forced to become a sled dog in Alaska, where he ultimately must decide whether to remain with humans or enter the wilderness. Buy now: The Call of the WildMacmillan
    A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Competition between two friends at an elite prep school reaches a climax when one of them impulsively shakes a tree branch the other is standing on and knocks him off, changing both of their lives forever. Buy now: A Separate PeaceSecker & Warburg
    Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh. Eleven-year-old Harriet records her observations about friends and classmates in a notebook as training in the hopes of one day becoming a spy. But when her friends come across the notebook, Harriet must confront their anger over her sometimes too honest notes. Buy now: Harriet the SpyHarper & Row
    The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier. A New England Catholic school student tries to "disturb the universe” by challenging the school hierarchy and is forced to face his subsequent isolation. Buy now: The Chocolate WarPantheon Books
    Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson. Sara Louise “Wheeze” Bradshaw struggles to escape the shadow of her sister Caroline. Buy now: Jacob Have I LovedCrowell
    A Series of Unfortunate Events (series), by Lemony Snicket. Three orphan siblings attempt to escape and outwit an evil relative who is trying to steal their parents’ fortune. Buy now: A Series of Unfortunate Events (series)HarperCollins
    Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. After his single-engine plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, 13-year-old Brian Robeson must survive with the hatchet gifted to him by his mother. Buy now: HatchetSimon and Schuster
    The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Hobbits, elves, wizards and men battle for control of the ring that will rule all of Middle Earth in this classic that all lovers of fantasy must read. Buy now: The Lord of the RingsGeorge Allen & Unwin
    Feed, by M.T. Anderson. A dystopian critique of consumerism and reliance on technology. Buy now: Feed Candlewick Press
    The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott. The most famous alchemist in the world, Nicholas Flamel, supposedly died in 1418—but his tomb is empty. Could he have discovered the elixir of life? Buy now: The AlchemystRandom House
    The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. Before the beloved movie, there was Goldman's book-within-a-book recounting the misadventures of a pair of starcrossed lovers, a righteous outlaw, and the scoundrels who get in their way. Buy now: The Princess BrideHarcourt Brace Jovanovich
    Beezus & Ramona, by Beverly Cleary. Beezus and her younger, animated sister Ramona navigate a bumpy relationship. Buy now: Beezus & Ramona William Morrow
    Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan, an orphan, is adopted by apes in this classic adventure novel that led to more than 20 sequels. Buy now: Tarzan of the ApesA. C. McClurg
    Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes. Young Johnny Tremain is caught up in the fervor of the American Revolution. Buy now: Johnny Tremain Houghton Mifflin
    The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. In his will, the millionaire Sam Westing challenges 16 heirs to solve the mystery of who murdered him. Buy now: The Westing GameE. P. Dutton
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    Mary Poppins, by P.L. Travers. Mary Poppins, nanny to the Banks children, reveals a magical world to the unsuspecting children in her care. Buy now: Mary PoppinsHarperCollins
    The Fault in Our StarsBy John Green. Hazel, a 16-year-old cancer patient whose prognosis is dim, has her life transformed when she falls in love with a young man she meets at a support group.
    The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. Hazel, a 16-year-old cancer patient whose prognosis is dim, has her life transformed when she falls in love with a young man she meets at a support group. Buy now: The Fault in Our Stars Dutton Books
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    The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare. The ever spirited and goodhearted Kit Tyler is sent to colonial Connecticut in 1687, where her manners—and her friendship with an old woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond—make her suspicious to the townspeople. Buy now: The Witch of Blackbird PondHMH
    Dangerous Angels, by Francesca Lia Block. A seven-book series about Weetzie Bat and her magical adventures in Los Angeles with friends and family. Buy now: Dangerous AngelsHarperTeen
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    Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan. Mexican farm workers adapt to life in Depression-era America and post-Revolutionary Mexico. Buy now: Esperanza RisingScholastic
    The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness. In a dystopian world where everyone can hear each other’s thoughts as “Noise,” Todd comes across an area that is entirely silent and is forced to flee with his newfound knowledge. Buy now: The Knife of Never Letting GoCandlewick
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    A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes. A dark 1929 novel about children who are kidnapped by pirates and develop complicated, nuanced relationships with their captors and each other. Buy now: A High Wind in Jamaica New York Review Books
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    The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart. Four intellectually gifted children are sent to investigate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, a mysterious organization suspected of sending out cryptic, mind-controlling signals over television waves. Buy now: The Mysterious Benedict SocietyLittle, Brown
    The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. A boy who lives in a Parisian train station investigates a hidden message from his late father in a story that was the basis for the Martin Scorsese 2011 film Hugo. Buy now: The Invention of Hugo CabretScholastic
    Sabriel, by Garth Nix. Sabriel travels into the depth of the mystical Old Kingdom to save her father, where she confronts a dark world of spirits and the undead. Buy now: SabrielHarperCollins
    Tiger Lily, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. In a prequel of sorts to Peter Pan, Anderson uses Tinkerbell to tell the story of Peter’s relationship with Tiger Lily before he falls for Wendy Darling. Buy now: Tiger LilyHarperTeen
    Secret (series), by Pseudonymous Bosch. Three children must protect a mysterious secret in this layered series written by the equally mysterious Pseudonymous Bosch. Buy now: Secret (series)Little, Brown
    A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin. The first novel in the Earthsea series, the book follows the adventures of Ged in his youth before he became Earthesea’s greatest sorcerer. Buy now: A Wizard of EarthseaParnassus Press
    Tales of Mystery and Imagination, by Edgar Allan Poe. A classic compilation of some of Poe’s wildest stories. Buy now: Tales of Mystery and ImaginationCalla Editions
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    Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer. Bella Swan discovers her crush comes with more complications than the average teen romance—her beau, Edward Cullen, is a vampire. Buy now: Twilight (series)Little, Brown

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