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laurpar 's review for:
Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
I spent a long time thinking of what genre to categorize this book into, and the best I could come up with was “pop reference,” a title which I’m pretty sure I just made up. It appealed to the same part of me whose interest is piqued by books such as Why Do Men Have Nipples? and The Darwin Awards. Though I have not read Freakonomics, this book’s predecessor, I am pretty sure it follows the same pattern: a book that answers questions you never even realized you had while giving economic theories a basis in reality (which was good for me, as economics was always one of my absolute worst subjects).
Subjects covered in this book include, among other interesting topics, the empowerment of Indian women and its links to television, the price fluctuations Chicago prostitutes impose on their clients, information banks look at when they try to pinpoint potential terrorists, and how monkeys react when taught how to use money. Altogether, I was fascinated and thoroughly entertained.
My only complaint (as I am, like I said before, not an economics person and pretty easily entertained - I’m sure hard-core economy students can find more things to complain about in this book than I can) is that it felt short. I was only about 60% of the way done on my Kindle when suddenly I was hitting the reference section (I’m guessing there were just a lot of notes about the studies the book referenced; I completely skipped over them because I’m that kind of a person). I guess that’s not too bad, considering it cost me less than $4 and it has a predecessor; I was just surprised.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys useless trivia, social sciences, and general reference books. Obviously, it didn’t change my life (though it did have me questioning my $13/hr job and the steady string of losers I’ve dated when prostitution was brought up - “I could be selling this for $500 instead of paying for my half of the meal at Cracker Barrel?!” - so, actually, I might take that statement back if I decide to change vocations), but I had a good time reading it. I could have totally seen my dad reading this had I gotten it for him for Christmas and a lot of my friends, too. Overall, it was general gift-able and enjoyable reading.
Subjects covered in this book include, among other interesting topics, the empowerment of Indian women and its links to television, the price fluctuations Chicago prostitutes impose on their clients, information banks look at when they try to pinpoint potential terrorists, and how monkeys react when taught how to use money. Altogether, I was fascinated and thoroughly entertained.
My only complaint (as I am, like I said before, not an economics person and pretty easily entertained - I’m sure hard-core economy students can find more things to complain about in this book than I can) is that it felt short. I was only about 60% of the way done on my Kindle when suddenly I was hitting the reference section (I’m guessing there were just a lot of notes about the studies the book referenced; I completely skipped over them because I’m that kind of a person). I guess that’s not too bad, considering it cost me less than $4 and it has a predecessor; I was just surprised.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys useless trivia, social sciences, and general reference books. Obviously, it didn’t change my life (though it did have me questioning my $13/hr job and the steady string of losers I’ve dated when prostitution was brought up - “I could be selling this for $500 instead of paying for my half of the meal at Cracker Barrel?!” - so, actually, I might take that statement back if I decide to change vocations), but I had a good time reading it. I could have totally seen my dad reading this had I gotten it for him for Christmas and a lot of my friends, too. Overall, it was general gift-able and enjoyable reading.