Bookray shipping order:

MyssCyn, Texas, USA
Erishkigal Utah, USA
dg7500 Pennsylvania, USA
americanmuse Mississippi, USA
andthings London, UK
Laui Netherlands
Aspen72 Finland
criminologeek Hong Kong

I was expecting a heavy slog when I picked up this book, but it was a surprisingly fast and entertaining read. The concept of the tipping point - when enough momentum builds to "tip" an item or event into the mainstream - is fascinating, and this book pulls from a wide variety of sources to explore the topic. Everything from shoe sales to New York City subway crime is covered, and each example builds on the ones before. I read this for a sustainability-themed book club, and I'll include my bookclub's talking points sheet when this book travels as a bookray.

This came in the mail a few days ago and I left it at work and couldn't make a JE immediatly. I will read and get it moving by next week. Thanks for including me in this ray.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I liked the book but it didn't hold my attention like Blink did.
Thanks for including me in this ring.

Mailing to Erishkigal in Salt Lake City, Utah tomorrow.

has arrived safely in Salt lake~it will go on my nightstand to start as soon as I`as soon as I finish my current book.Thanks!

Damn, I feel twerrible. I finished this at least two weeks ago, and sat it near the computer, awaiting atime to go back and look up sections I wanted to write about. Then, since it formed a flat surface atop the flat surface it lay upon, papers found there way ontop the book, and I spaced journalling......now I'm frantically trying to get my car packed with all I need for two weeks remote camping(and a long drive to get there).

So no time, and I don't want to hold it up any longer; I have dg7500's addy and will post it on my way out.

I found this a facinating read!! And enjoyable as well :D And relatable. Offhand, I recall the Sesame Stree/Children's televion standing out, as our first show of next season (theatre) is "Schoolhouse Rock Live."

Thanks so much for sharing this midwinter!!

Arrived safely in todays mail...and I'm anxious to get started on it. I have another book to finish before starting, but hope to get to it by the end of the week.

7/22/09: Another fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell. I think we've all known for quite some time that it's often the 'little things' that make a huge difference, but to see it laid out in this format with the 'science' to back it up, is really quite interesting.

7/31/09: Have PM'd americanmuse for the third time requesting mailing information(once when the book arrived with me, again when I finished the book, and now again today). Hoping to hear back soon, so I can get this in the mail to continue the bookray.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed out this afternoon via media mail with delivery confirmation.

"Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens ..."

Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)

i got this a couple of days ago and have just gotten around to registering it- so sorry i have will be starting on this book within the week.

thanks for sharing!

not my cup of tea, i'm finding studying for an insurance exam somewhat less of a chore. too studious for me, i guess. reserved for next in ring.

***Updated info*** on 9/29 I have pm'ed andthings trying to contact them. i have gotten copies of the pm's I've sent, so I know that's okay on my end.

Since I have not heard from andthings, though I've been trying and the person in front of me had to make three attempts to reach me, I have elected to pm the next person on the list on 10/8/09.

It's here! I was bracing for three months of waiting, so it was a nice surprise to find it in my mailbox today. Thanks for sending, americanmuse! (My sister sent a letter to the US last year, but forgot to write airmail/priority on it, so the letter took over three months to arrive. It must have taken the slow boat to get there.)

I'm currently reading the one book I have before this one, so I shouldn't take too long. Thanks for including me, midwinter.

I'm almost done reading (last chapter). And I really, really thoroughly enjoyed it. There are so many examples and I'm a bit sad I can't remember them all, but it's a great insight into human psychology, broader than just in relation to hypes.

I don't think I can really remember much, so I'll have to reread it sometime. In the mean time this has really opened me up to start reading more non fiction (I kind of never read non-fiction, except some biographies, *cough* oh and obligatory studybooks), it's way more interesting than I thought!

I've contacted AspenYard (namechange) and will try to send the book in the next week. Thanks for including me!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Dropped it in the mail today. Thanks for including me!

Thank you for this book to Midwinter and all others! Book has finally arrived here, actually couple of days ago. It seemed to get rather long to fly over here this time, which I suppose is due to Finnish strike just recently, which affected to postal deliveries. I wish to get into this book within Christmas, and will send this further in January, not to lose it amongst Xmasy mailings. Thanks again!

Edit: criminologeek wanted to be removed from the list, and midwinter wants the book to travel further, so book is available.

I wanted to write a bit longer essay of this book, to remember it better myself, to think the ideas over later, and because there's such challenge in Finnish Forum, where you should write a journal of at least 3500 characters of the book you've read. Here you go then ;) Hopefully, this does not spoil the reading experience of others – well in case, skip this journal for now and read it afterwards if you're curious.

****

I saw an interview of Malcolm Gladwell in Jimmy Gimmel Live probably last spring. I became very curious then (of him as author, and of his books), and I'm happy of the opportunity to get this book in my hands.

The Tipping Point told how all kinds of things in the world may spread like epidemics, not only illnesses, but also criminality, fashion, philosophies, music trends, anything you could imagine, and more. The book presents three factors (The Law of the Few, Stickiness Factor, The Power of Context) as part of the tipping process, and how those factors are related. All of them are needed. The book explains them with the number of interesting and inspiring examples, worth reading.

During the personality types -section, I started to think thoroughly do I know the kind of people who are like Connectors (having wide social networks; or rather wide network of acquaintances) or Mavens (having amazingly much information of different things, due to their deep curiosity and involvement) or Salesmen (having influencing character). I feel that the intensity of certain behaviour may be dependent on the happenings in person's life. Could it be that connector could transform to maven or salesman depending on age and life situation?

The Law of the few wanted to say, too, that epidemics need only few starters, provided these personality types are involved. There needs to be differently focused Connectors and Mavens and Salesmen, so that they can cover lots of information and link different groups of people, and also be in connection with each other, forming effective teams. Nicest thing is that they are enthusiastic in helping of others, that's the main motivation for their behaviour.

Next, the book told about Contagiousness and Stickiness. The difference with these two was (quote from the book): “Contagiousness is in larger part a function of the messenger. Stickiness is primarily a property of the message.” One of the case studies told of smoking in that sense. Among teenagers, smoking is attached in some misty way to coolness: when celebrities happen to smoke, the smoking catches the focus, and person is not cool because of cool actions, but because he smokes. This kind of attitude is difficult to change. This could be described in my opinion also this way: if parents succeed in explaining the healt issues, like smoking, in neutral way, children need not make revolutionary experiments in those specific issues, because there's no need for fight. However, there was no solution for how to decrease smoking. Maybe someone finds out ways to spread the “want fresh air” epidemic.

The power of context told that the number of 150 is the edge what comes to relationship networks. I have own example here, too: I remember that in time when I went to lower elementary school, in my school there were around 90 pupils, and I was able to list all of them, the names of pupils in each class, and connect names to faces. But in upper elementary school with more pupils, around 200, I couldn't any more.

Actually most interesting with those three factors is, how they could be systematically used for specific purposes through planning, as long as you know how to use the tools, what to take into account. People with earlier mentioned personalities could be gathered together and educated, and let them spread the information further. In one example dealing with life cycles of products, tipping was connected especially to the importance of idea translation: it was awakening how the Innovator ideas were systematically translated to Ordinary people to increase sales. And how the tipping of a product ended after Innovator items were unpurposefully eliminated.

The actions need not be big, instead, focusing helps to find simple and cheap solutions. So lets start to spread positive epidemics!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I offered the book in Finnish Forum from where VariC picked it, and therefore, the book will fly to Berlin.
Bon voyage to the book. Enjoy the read!

The book arrived safely in Berlin. Thanks, AspenYard!

This was a very interesting and enjoyable read, and, to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be quite this good. Gladwell draws on real research and actual events to support his various theses. The point that ideas and such spread mostly because of very few people and how the spreading is greatly affected by the presentation are good things to take out of this book, as it also shows how little things can make a big difference.

The chapter of smoking I found perhaps the most interesting, mostly because there was a lot of information there that I was previously unaware of, like the possible genetic basis for heavy smoking, or how the environment that shapes a person's development isn't actually the parents but more the peer group. Gladwell's ideas here on how to reduce smoking seem workable and he argues for them well, so I'd hope something like that could be tried. And perhaps similarly with other desired social effects.

There was also an amusing personal situation for me. Pretty much right after reading the part on Sesame Street, and how children didn't take into Big Bird looking for a name for himself because children don't see how a thing could have multiple names, I visited a three-year-old who was indeed very insisting that everything had just one name. It's not a clover, it's a flower. :-)

I'm very glad to have set the challenge to which AspenYard responded, as I doubt I would have been interested enough in this book without having read that journal entry.

This looks interesting. Thank you VariC. (Too tired to type more after being on the road for almost 20 hours.)

Finally I have had the time to read this book. Like VariC, I found the chapter about smoking the most interesting one. Also the dynamics of epidemics and how only a handful of people can start one was fascinating.

This book is participating in BC-Xmas meeting here in Turku, Finland.

Picked up from the meet-up. Looks interesting!

I had put off reading this as thought it would be a chore to read. It turned out to be interesting and easy to read instead. I found the parts about crime decline in New York the most interesting. I liked the author's positive view on the world: you can implement change in the smallest of ways.

I took this to a local meet-up but it found no takers. It's still with me, let's see what I'll do with it.

Miittiin mukaan.

Got the book at the local meet-up, as I was interested.

I found the beginning of the book a bit boring and repetitive, but I'm glad I didn't give up: the rest of the book was very interesting. Many of the examples I didn't know about (I've never seen Sesame Street, never heard of Hush Puppies or Airwalk etc.), but it didn't matter. I sort of expected the book to mention the tipping points in nature as well, because I had learned the term "tipping point" in context of natural sciences (e.g. climatology), but as Gladwell shows, there are tipping points in human behaviour as well.

I found the chapter about Sesame Street /Blue's Clues the most interesting; this explains why small children want to watch the same stuff over and over again! In addition, the chapters about New York and smoking were intriguing too. I remember how I tried my first and last cigarette at the age of 17. I got a splitting head ache and my fingers smelled horrible. Never again!

Also, I read the book right when the news said that New York had a new record of consecutive murder-free days (10), so the megalopolis is still becoming more and more safe.

Released at a local meet-up. Happy reading!

Thank you Thalasse for bringing this to the meet-up. This sound really interesting.