Freakonomics

Freakonomics, by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner, is an exercise in strange comparisons by using examples, anecdotes, and data. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t have much going for it. The writing has many clumsy segues between the numbers, percentages, stories, and figures, and reads in a formal and academic style instead of being easy to understand and simple. Not only that, the topics jump all over the place, taking forever to tie in to the point the chapter is supposed to make. (“Why are we talking about X? The chapter is about Y!”) The book takes a dive in coherency due to how loosely the connections are made. In short, the ideas are interesting, but the execution is weak. It takes a strong will to slosh through the dreck and get to the interesting points. And it’s not worth it. Skim this book for the interesting facts, but forget about actually reading it.