Blindside Book Review

I read the book Blindside by Michael Lewis on the plane ride from Los Angeles to Seattle today. Blindside is the real life tale of Michael Oher coming up out of poverty in Memphis to become a big time NFL left tackle. I thought the book was fairly well-written and whipped through it quickly. The author Michael Lewis was too close to his subject matter though and he tried to cram his worldview down the readers necks. He believes that success is mostly due to a persons circumstances and only partly due to themselves. Lewis’s theory is interesting and many prominent people like Malcolm Gladwell share it. I think it is mostly true, but they put too much emphasis on nurture instead of nature. I got the feeling reading the book that the author left out some important points on Michael Oher, especially considering that Oher himself disagrees with Michael Lewis.

Overall, the book is a nice easy read with some substance. I would give it a 6/10.