04/06/2015
As coauthors Levitt and Dubner explain at the start of this delightful collection, a decade ago, concurrent with the publication of their book Freakonomics, they decided to start a blog with the same name. Eight thousand posts later, they're still writing, even though the blog generates no income and probably cannibalizes sales from their books. For the site's anniversary, they've finally bowed to reader demands to turn it into a book. The result is this energetic, charming assortment of posts, thematically arranged, on topics as varied as terrorism, restoration of the draft, getting rid of the penny, car-seat safety, obesity, the U.S. crackdown on Internet poker, steroid use in the Tour de France, the D.C. gun ban, and "No Gas Day." Lively, self-deprecating writing ensures an entertaining read for fans and new readers alike. It seems likely to prove the authors right in their gamble that even content available for free can be a viable product, especially with such a large, devoted fanbase. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (May)
Lively, self-deprecating writing ensures an entertaining read for fans and new readers alike.” — Publishers Weekly
“[A] kooky and counterintuitive collection of economic analysis. ... Plenty to revel in.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Levitt and Dubner... return with more of their signature humor and economic perspective on everyday life. ... Will be a hit with fans of Freakonomics.” — Library Journal
Praise for the Freakonomics Books: “Genius... has you gasping in amazement.” — Wall Street Journal
“We are all Freakonomists now.” — Washington Post
“An afternoon with Levitt and Dubner’s book will transform you into the most interesting person in the room that evening.” — National Public Radio
“A splendid book, full of unlikely but arresting historical details that distinguish the authors from the run of pop social scientists.” — New York Times
“An addictive, irresistible crash course in the populist application of economics.” — The A.V. Club
“Good ideas ... expressed with panache.” — Financial Times
We are all Freakonomists now.
A splendid book, full of unlikely but arresting historical details that distinguish the authors from the run of pop social scientists.
An addictive, irresistible crash course in the populist application of economics.
An afternoon with Levitt and Dubner’s book will transform you into the most interesting person in the room that evening.
Praise for the Freakonomics Books: “Genius... has you gasping in amazement.
Good ideas ... expressed with panache.
Good ideas ... expressed with panache.
Praise for the Freakonomics Books: “Genius... has you gasping in amazement.
We are all Freakonomists now.
An afternoon with Levitt and Dubner’s book will transform you into the most interesting person in the room that evening.
05/01/2015
Levitt and Dubner, coauthors of Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, and Think Like a Freak, return with more of their signature humor and economic perspective on everyday life, this time with excerpts from their blog (freakonomics.com). Each of the 132 short entries was written by one of the site's bloggers—mostly Levitt and Dubner, but they also highlight pieces by other contributors. Posts were composed by a single author, rather than by both as in their books. Chapters are organized thematically, and topics range from the price of oil and the time necessary to improve a golf swing to the customer service at KFC and the best day of the week to rob a bank. Since this compilation comes from actual blog posts, it frequently references events that are no longer current, but most topics are still relevant. VERDICT This book will be a hit with fans of Freakonomics, though those who aren't familiar with Levitt and Dubner's previous works will want to start with those. [See Prepub Alert, 11/3/14.]—Elizabeth Nelson, McHenry Cty. Coll. Lib., Crystal Lake, IL
11/01/2015
After the success of their first book, Freakonomics (William Morrow, 2005), Levitt and Dubner started a blog at freakonomics.com as a place for their readers to interact with them and to pose questions and offer, as the subtitle of this book states, "warped suggestions and well-intended rants." This book is a compilation of the best of those blog posts over the past 10 years. This book culls the best posts from the blog and puts the entries in one place, making them easy to browse and giving the authors a chance to update some of the posts with new information. Unfortunately, there isn't any methodical organization to the content and some of the topics are so old as to be irrelevant (for example, do readers really care that in 2006 Levitt predicted that Barack Obama would one day be president?). However, it's a great introduction for teens to the general idea of looking more deeply into assumptions about terrorism, cheating, endangered species, and the locavore movement, to name just a few. Levitt and Dubner's writing is breezy and often laugh-out-loud funny as well as thought provoking and eye-opening. VERDICT Leave a copy of this book sitting on a table in the teen section, and wait for them to start reading snippets of it aloud to one another.—Sarah Flowers, formerly of Santa Clara County Library
This is an odd book, a collection of snippets of logic and advice from a blog created by the authors of FREAKONOMICS. Author Stephen Dubner has a pleasant voice and is easy to listen to. His coauthor, Steven Levitt, is not as polished and speaks more slowly. Many diverse topics are discussed, such as why do people buy bottled water when they can get it for free. The answers sometimes seem rushed or fleeting but are are always interesting. Professional narrators Erik Bergmann and Thérèse Plummer take on additional narration duties. This is a good audiobook for commutes. M.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
2015-04-01
The Freakonomics guys return with another kooky and counterintuitive compilation of economic analysis that might appear wildly offbeat but just might be surprisingly spot-on. It's been a decade since Levitt and Dubner (Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain, 2014, etc.) first set the thinking world on end with their provocative investigations into the economics of everyday things. In the intervening years, the uncompromising writers have kept their freak flag flying, penning a series of equally challenging blog posts further aimed at discovering the hidden underpinnings of society. Here, the authors bring together a selection of those posts. The format, however, doesn't always serve the contents. Careening from the oil apocalypse to the benefits of cheating in sports is lots of fun, but the ride can be jarring without a contemplative break in between. In their original form, Levitt and Dubner's blog posts went off like tiny literary land mines. But they allowed time to think and regroup. Here, they often leave readers feeling like they're being repeatedly subjected to a series of head-snapping hit-and-runs. Wait. We should allow folks to vote as many times as they like in elections as long as they pay for it? What? Levitt and Dubner's latest foray is much more successful when it reflects the lively online interactions 10 years of blogging have brought them—e.g., the time they sought out the best aptonyms on the planet and found a dentist named "Chip Silvertooth" and an undertaker named "Eikenberry." Equally pleasing is their account of the episode in which the Internet deftly managed to turn the tables on the supersavvy economists when they attempted to find and congratulate their 400,000th Twitter follower. Opportunistic, to be sure, but the authors provide plenty to revel in if you haven't been keeping up with 10 years of freaky blog posts.
