Sunday, June 05, 2005

Book of the Day -- Freakonomics

Today I finished reading one of the current non-fiction bestsellers, and I would love to recommend it, as I loved it. The book is Freakonomics.
If you've ever asked questions that buck conventional wisdom, this book is for you. It's a book written by Steven Levitt, a renowned economist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Dubner, a writer for the New York Times, and it is mostly about studies Levitt has completed. He has applied his economics background to largely social science questions and by using his knack for asking the right questions, he has used data to show us a plethora of interesting, and often surprising, things. Being a bit of a numbers guy myself, I immensely enjoyed this book.
If you've ever wondered what caused crime to fall in the mid-90's or what makes a good parent or will my child's name matter, this is the book for you. If you are a fan of turning conventional wisdom on its head, this is definitely the book for you. And if you enjoy a good non-fiction read, and enjoy finding the truth in the world around us, make this one of the next books you read.
You will see I have linked the authors' blog on the right, and from there, you can browse to the book's website. Both are great clicks. Baseball fans take note of some of the comment-generating posts Levitt has made on baseball...

1 comment:

Greg McConnell said...

Hey Ryan, I definitely want to read that book. However, I think it'll be a few more weeks before the Palatine Library has a copy available though.

Also, I must commend you on your consistency of posting. Great job!