In his book The Tipping Point, Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell explains how a trend can take many forms. It can be a general change in social behaviour, an idea or a fashion. However, why do some trends catch on and others not? What makes one particular brand of training shoe suddenly become the must-have product? How do people find out about trends and what makes people want to buy into them? Is it simply a question of keeping up with other people?

In his new work, Gladwell explores the moment when something becomes common and how products, ideas messages and forms of behaviour spread. He looks at the reasons why trends are similar in the way they develop to outbreaks of disease, or medical epidemics.

Epidemics, like trends, start in a very similar way, maybe from a single person with a virus, then spread very quickly until they take over the population and appear to be everywhere. Eventually, they will slowdown gradually or die out suddenly. Gladwell shows how these changes happen not gradually but at one dramatic moment.

Gladwell identifies three type s of people who are influential in the development of these kinds of social epidemics. Connectors are people in a community who have wide social circles. They know a lot of people and like to introduce people to catch other. The people they know also tend to come from a variety of social, cultural professional and economic circles. Mavens are people with a lot of knowledge or experts in a particular field. They wish to pass on their knowledge to others. Mavens collect and gather information so are the first to pick up on new trends. Salesmen are people with charisma (人格魅力) and powerful negotiation skills. They have a soft influence over people rather than actual power. This means they are influential because people want to imitate them.

Overall, Gladwell’s book is a thought-provoking read for anyone interested in the origins of trends. What’s more, he writes in a clear style so even the most difficult ideas are easy to understand.

Complete the following sentence: “You go to the library to check out ...?” The obvious answer is “books”. But a harder question might be, “What do we mean by ‘books’?” Nowadays, electronic books, or “e­books”, have become more and more popular in American society.

The biggest online bookseller Amazon, for example, recently announced that less than four years after introducing them to its catalog, it is now selling more electronic versions of its book titles than printed ones.

Last week, Pew Internet Project released a survey about the use of e­books by library customers. It found that 12% of Americans aged 16 and older who read e­books say they had borrowed at least one from a library within the past year. But the survey found that the broader public, including 58% of those who have library cards and 53% of people who own electronic book readers, are not aware that they can find and check out e­books from public libraries, even though three quarters of the libraries offer that service.

Pew Internet Project director Lee Rainie noted that e­book borrowing is becoming more popular at the same time that publishers, who are selling plenty of e­books and fewer hard­copy editions, are worried that free e­book check­outs at the library will hurt sales. In February, for example, the big publisher Penguin Books stopped supplying new e­books and audio books to libraries. Penguin just reached an agreement to resume supplying one big library system in New York City but not until six months after new titles are released. That way, those who want the latest books will have to buy them.

So things are a little murky (阴暗的) in the library world when it comes to electronic books. More and more customers want them, but publishers are giving the libraries a hard time about offering them. Demand is not the problem. Supply may soon be.

If you wish to become a better reader, here are four important things to remember about reading rate:

● Knowing why you are reading or what you are reading to find out will often help you to know whether to read rapidly or slowly.

● Some things should be read slowly throughout. Examples are directions for making or doing something, arithmetic problems, science and history books, which are full of important information. You must read such things slowly to remember each important step and understand each important idea.

● Some things should be read rapidly throughout. Examples are simple stories meant for enjoyment, news letters from friends, pieces of news from local, or home-town, papers, telling what is happening to friends and neighbors.

● In some of your reading, you must change your speed from fast to slow and slow to fast, as you go along. You will need to read certain pages rapidly and then slow down and do more careful reading when you come to important ideas which must be remembered.