"Freakenomics" By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

My wife likes to wander through the bookstore looking for anything that strikes her as interesting, and I grudgingly go along. I like to read, but I already have a stack of book piled up that I need to catch up on. Though I hate to admit it, I have found a few books that I picked up during our wanderings. One of them is "Freakenomics." It's an interesting book which looks at topics you wouldn't normally associate with economics, such as standardized testing in Chicago, sumo wrestlers, crime rates, and culture issues. (I think I was taking an economics course at the time, too.)

I don't have time to do a good review right now, but there's plenty of info on Amazon. If any of my friends are interested, let me know and you can borrow it (after Paula is done).

I also picked up a book about the top 100 most influential books. I started the intro and quickly decided I didn't care much for the author. I've never seen so many parentheses and hyphens in so few pages. This is just the intro so he has to explain his creiteria; there are many "good" books out there but they are good for different reasons. He included some books that are not good but still influential, and left out good books that were not influential. It has 100 essays about the book, the authors, what was going on at the time they were written, and their influence on the world. I only read a little of it before switching to one of Paula's books that was higher on my "to-read" list. I'll get back to this one next.

The book I switched to is a small one regarding the friendships and relationships of women. It is insightful but not necessarily ground-breaking. We all know women tend to me more emotional (eg. open with their feelings, have closer friendships, but can also hold grudges for long periods of time). It is written from a Christian perspective, which gets a little heavy-handed. Again, I'll write more about it when I have time.


-- C.