What the Dog Saw (Large Print)[LP Edition]; And Other Adventures [Hardcover]

Malcolm (Author); Gladwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2009

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from TheNew Yorker over the same period. Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate. "Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head."What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Large Print (2009)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002U21IQG
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (219 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,840,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996. His 1999 profile of Ron Popeil won a National Magazine Award, and in 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People. He is the author of "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference," (2000) and "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" (2005), both of which were number one New York Times bestsellers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

337 of 348 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A unique perspective on the complexity of the human mind.", October 20, 2009

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (Hardcover)

Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" is a compilation of the author's favorite work from The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. This book is divided into three parts 1. Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius 2. Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses 3. Personality, Character, and Intelligence. In the first part, Gladwell includes portraits of a pitchman for kitchen gadgets who is so persuasive that he could sell clothing to a nudist. In addition, he discusses three female advertising pioneers, a canny investment strategist, and a "dog whisperer" who is able to tame even the most intransigent canine. What these people have in common is an understanding of how human beings (and four-legged creatures) think and feel, supreme self-confidence, and the ability to promote themselves and their ideas. The second part deals with the art of thinking and seeing clearly. Gladwell describes the series of events that led to the Challenger explosion and the collapse of Enron. Could these catastrophic events have been foreseen and prevented? In part three, the author discusses various aspects of genius and talent, and whether it is possible to profile criminal behavior or predict how a prospective employee will fare on the job.

"What the Dog Saw" has some intriguing passages that will impel readers to say, "I never thought of this subject in quite that way before." The provocative Gladwell enjoys toying with conventional wisdom and challenging our preconceived notions. For instance, in one article, he defends certain forms of plagiarism, a transgression that many would consider indefensible. In another, he states that tragedies such as the Challenger disaster are unavoidable, since for a variety of reasons, "we don't really want the safest of all possible worlds." This water-cooler book will have people arguing vehemently that Malcolm Gladwell is either out of his mind or, conversely, that he is a courageously honest writer who dares to tell it like it is.

Unfortunately, there are several dreary chapters, including one that analyzes why one particular brand of ketchup is so popular and another that explores the poor judgment of John Rock, the inventor of the birth control pill. In addition, Gladwell occasionally indulges in hair-splitting: Do most of us really care about the fine distinctions between panicking and choking? On the other hand, there is a fascinating section that explains why mammograms, as a diagnostic tool, are inexact and hard to interpret. In addition, Gladwell makes a good case for the notion that intelligence failures, such as the ones that preceded 9/11, are easy to condemn in hindsight but may be more understandable when viewed in context. Malcolm Gladwell's strength has always been his ability to tell an original and entertaining story and connect it to our everyday experiences. He does just that in his best pieces, but there are others that probably should not have made the cut.

326 of 338 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you don't need the actual physical book..., November 16, 2009

By 

Oy!-dysseus - See all my reviews

This review is from: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (Hardcover)

Not a review so much as a notice. If you don't need the actual book itself, you should know that all of these pieces are available on Malcolm Gladwell's website for free.

169 of 194 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother - a collection of articles, November 30, 2009

By 

BTrain (Pioneer Square) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (Hardcover)

I'm a big fan of Gladwell's previous three books and how each of them took an idea and fully developed it over the course of a book. Admittedly the books were small, but that makes sense because I don't think you could write another 100 pages or so on any of those topics and keep the books as interesting to read as they were. When I saw a new book by Malcolm Gladwell out I jumped on it and went ahead and ordered it without even looking at a description of the book. Shame on me for granting Gladwell the status of having anything bought site-unseen. This book is merely a collection of previously published articles written for the new Yorker magazine. As articles they lack the depth and level of development seen in his previous books. Articles seem to be just that, magazine articles covering one subject rather than trying to take one idea and really expand upon it and explore it in depth. Yes, the articles are organized into an attempt to tie them more together into what the subject matter they are covering but that feels forced and like it was the little work the publisher had Gladwell do in putting this book together before they could print it and sell it to you.

Buy it if you don't get the New Yorker and don't really care that it isn't anything new or very similar to his previous books.
Don't buy it if you can wait for the paperback, or have already read his articles in the New Yorker, or are thinking this will be something like his previous books.