<p>I haven’t gotten mine either yet :-(</p>
<p>^i’m sure you guys will get your books soon (and if you don’t get them within 7 days of June 26th, you can contact their office)</p>
<p>on another note, i’ve finished outliers and am on the final book, my own country (which so far is also an exceptional read).</p>
<p>Out of curiosity… to those of you who have received your books already, were they sent by a courier or regular mail? And are there any international students who have received their books yet?</p>
<p>^what’s the difference between regular mail and courier? (The postman who usually comes to my neighborhood just dropped it off in my mailbox)</p>
<p>*just finished my own country; yay!</p>
<p>Well I always associate couriers with the mailing services that deliver in a short time frame eg FedEx, UPS, DHL etc. (I may be mistaken). Whereas regular mail is, well, the regular mail. If your postman dropped it off I’ll assume it’s regular mail which will mean I’ll be waiting an eternity to get my books. I just hope it doesn’t get lost! I had a package from Queens University that i didn’t know about and it got lost in the mail… it was sent in November 2008 but I didn’t receive until March 2009… <em>sigh</em> <em>crossing fingers that I’ll get my books soon</em></p>
<p>if they’re not there in a week, order them through amazon and send the financial aid office the bill 
haha</p>
<p>Actually in one of the early emails they sent to your stanford email they give you an email address in case you have any questions or problems with the mailings. I emailed them about a week after I was supposed to get my Approaching Stanford stuff that I didn’t get it and they sent it by overnight delivery to me no problem.</p>
<p>I started Outliers yesterday and I’m not THAT impressed by it. It all seems like common sense, but in a well-written form. Do the other two books get better?</p>
<p>^bluebubbles- I actually liked Hunger and My Own Country better than Outliers. Hunger reminded me of Amy Tan’s novels (which I’m a big fan of, although I have yet to read a few of them), but w/ less emphasis on the strength of mother-daughter bonds and more on the deterioration of family life. My Own Country was very enlightening–although it has a lot of medical terminology, it’s written in such a way that it really touches the heart. I’m not too picky of a reader. To me, Outliers was more of a sort of “light” piece as compared to the other two “deeper” ones.</p>
<p>But then again, that’s just my own personal opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks, skyraptor! I always liked Tan’s stuff so I’m looking forward to Hunger.</p>
<p>I finally got my books yesterday! It turns out I would’ve had them about 2 weeks earlier if it wasn’t for DHL being ■■■■■■■■. When I got the packages I tracked them and they were in the country since July 3rd, sat there for 10 days was shipped to Venezuela and then sent back before I got them.</p>
<p>But anyway, I’ve finished Hunger and it was pretty good. I’m gonna go start Outliers now :)</p>
<p>hpfan018, I’m glad to hear that you’ve gotten your books. Happy reading! :)</p>
<p>Funnily enough, Hunger was the first book I read, too. Maybe b/c of the not-so-intimidating length?</p>
<p>I’ve finished Outliers and while it was interesting, I can’t say that I enjoyed it much. I agree with soxfan. All he did was pretty much state the obvious. It got to be very tedious to read. Hunger, however, was an excellent read. I’m halfway through My Own Country and I find the story extremely touching. However, as I continue to read it, it feels like more of the same. Each chapter is just about some gay person he met with HIV and how he relates to them/how he feels when they die. Hopefully as I continue to read the plot will change a bit.</p>
<p>^He did state the obvious, but I thought he did a solid job of compiling all these studies and such into a logical argument. And it’s obvious once you read his explanations. But not very much before. How many of us knew beforehand that summers were such a detriment for academic achievement, that the chinese numbering system contributes to their adeptness at math, that many airline crashes were so dependent on lack of proper communication due to societal respect? Even if you suspected some of the things he argued for, did you have much evidence to support it? And if you looked for the proper evidence in google search or in some database, would you find it an abundance of support quickly and effectively? Probably not. Yes, it got repetitive. He could have written a twenty page essay (or less) that contained all of his claims. But would you buy his argument if he didn’t harp on each point so much? Would you be satisfied with him saying that “birthdays play an important role in success” and leaving it at that? No. That is not an argument, it’s a generalized, unsupported claim on it’s own.</p>
<p>Just curious, does anyone know how last year’s (2012) books were? Were they better or worse overall?</p>
<p>I preferred the second part of Outliers much more than the first. It’s obvious that you need the right environment and opportunities for success. You can’t build a tropical getaway in Antarctica. But the second part zeroed in on cultural and social influences, things that are part of our daily lives and not just big success stories. I found that much more interesting than “Bill Gates became successful because he was the only high school kid with access to a computer terminal.” The first part made me feel like as if no matter how hard I work, my success is based on when my mother gave birth to me or if my parents have the right jobs to teach me the right skills.</p>
<p>^I agree. The story picked up in the last few segments. I did, however, not really like all that garment to lawyer stuff.</p>
<p>Senior0991, of course there were some things that I learned from his book such as the points you mention. However, many thing were common sense. For example the fact that simply working hard isn’t going to make you insanely rich, a misconception that many people have. Well duh. I see people around me everyday who work their butts off and can’t seem to reach where they want to. Coming from the Caribbean I also often wondered if my grandparents and parents were born a few years before of after their birthdays, what situation I would be in today.</p>
<p>Admittedly I did learn some things. As you said, I didn’t know that culture was directly related to the frequency of plane crashes or that growing rice and a different language and phonetic system made the Chinese so adept at math. But hey, it still wasn’t the most enjoyable book I’ve ever read.</p>
<p>This is totally random but Happy Bday to me! :)</p>
<p>rofl happy birthday.</p>