Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: 2007 Audiobook

For years I have heard about the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which was first published in 2000, but I had not gotten around to checking it out. What "tipped" me to finally read it was that an audiobook version was available at my library. As Gladwell says, little things like that matter. With the book loaded on my iPod, I listened while I worked in the yard and garden.

What I did not realize until the end was that I was listened to a new version with an afterward updating the story. In the extra twenty plus minutes Gladwell, who does an excellent job of reading his own book, tells about some reactions to his suggestions about starting word-of-mouth social epidemics. One of these was that the Karma Foundation offered Tipping Point Grants to New Jersey public libraries.

I've heard the book described as a marketing text. I usually dislike marketing publications because they seem to be about manipulating people, not serving them. The Tipping Point, however, seemed to me an entertaining philosophical text about close observation to discover what people want in their daily lives. I enjoyed it.