“Malcolm Gladwell” Source of caption and image: online version of the NYT interview quoted and cited below.
I have found the two books that I have read by Michael Lewis to be very useful. But I have found the five books that I have read by Malcolm Gladwell to be full of wonderful and important examples and thought-provoking insights. So I am a bit surprised by the level of Gladwell’s praise for Lewis. (Maybe the problem is that I have not yet read Moneyball or The Blind Side.)
(p. 8) What books, to your mind, bring together social science, business principles and narrative nonfiction in an interesting or innovative way?
. . . Bringing together social science and business principles is easy. Doing that and telling a compelling story is next to impossible. I think only Michael Lewis can do it well. His nonbusiness books like “The Blind Side,” by the way, are even better. That book is as close to perfect as a work of popular nonfiction can be.
For the full interview, see:
“By the Book; Malcolm Gladwell; The author of “David and Goliath” compares Michael Lewis to Tiger Woods: “I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like.” The New York Times Book Review (Sun., October 6, 2013): 8.
(Note: bold in original; ellipsis added.)
(Note: neither the print nor the online version of the interview identify the name of the interviewer.)
(Note: the online version of the interview has the date October 3, 2013, and has the title “Malcolm Gladwell: By the Book; The author of “David and Goliath” compares Michael Lewis to Tiger Woods: “I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like.”)