I recently read the following books:
- “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker
- “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell
- “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell
After reading all three within the past few months, I found much overlap in their lessons. They all discuss aspects of our intuition, our sixth sense. Much of the time, it is something that we should pay attention to, listen to, and act on. But there are also times when it betrays us. All three books provide excellent examples of both scenarios, and all three books provide good reasons to work on honing our skill to identify when our intuition is right and wrong. Fascinating!
Of all three, I enjoyed “The Gift of Fear” the most. But I warn you… it can be a little uncomfortable to read at times. Gavin de Becker regularly works with people who have experienced tragic circumstances and very frightening situations – including his own life experience. I couldn’t read it all at once. It was a book that I’d read some over a couple of weeks and then take a break for a couple of weeks. But I greatly enjoyed the way he writes, and his examples all weaved into a bigger story of how fear can be a gift as long as we know how to use it.
With Malcolm Gladwell’s books, I struggled a little at first to understand the direction that he was taking. I read “Talking to Strangers” first, and I felt like each chapter were separate short stories with no transition from one to the other. At the end of the book, he pulls it all together, and I finally understood how all of the chapters fit to each other. With this new understanding of how he writes, I enjoyed “Blink” more.
