The Back of the Book

In Freakonomics Steven Levitt asks a series of provocative and profound questions about contemporary living and helps us to see the familiar world through a completely original lens. He examines everything from education to traffic jams, from food to guns, from sports to getting elected, from betting to parenting, pushing back the boundaries of economics along the way. Levitt turns conventional economics on its head, stripping away the jargon and calculations of the 'experts' to explore the riddles of everyday life. He reaches some astonishing conclusions, showing us that Freakonomics is all about how people get what they want.

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I don't know what made me choose this book - curiosity, I suppose. I chose it and then put off and put off listening to it - decisions which I rather regret. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative and, although it's very American (I think all the data used is from the US) the authors make very interesting points that will stay with me.

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Offered as BookRing.

BookRing:

missprisy - US - Intl if nec
KateKintail - US - Intl if nec
Tinkaday - US - Intl
retrogirl1977 - US/Can - US
aliciayoung - US - Intl
yoteun - Netherlands - Intl
LeishaCamden - Norway - Intl
martinburo ' UK ' UK
laura0141 - UK - ENDS

PMed missprisy for addy

PMed missprisy for addy.

On way to missprisy.

This arrived today, I will start listening asap.

Thank you for sharing, this will be off to KateKintail tomorrow.

I received this today. I wasn't expecting copied CDs, but I have been looking forward to listening. Will start on it very soon. Thanks for including me in the ring.

I finished listening to this set, and I liked it, but not quite in the way I thought I would. Everyone told me how absolutely hilarious the books and its writers were. And when I started listening, I'm not sure hilarious would be the word to use. There were funny parts, certainly, but the audio book was read very blandly/scientifically and not in a way to invite laughter. Like the authors' voices, the other benefit of reading it compared to listening would be the few tables/figures that are described that would be nice to have seen (especially the names at the end- the narrator did an excellent job of repeating/explaining to keep it VERY clear but it would be easier to read those lists to compare them rather than listen to them being read).

Presentation aside, I really liked this book. I'm an American so I understood (and felt the relevance of) the many examples and references used. It's more a book of interesting observations of culture/the economy and the way those have an impact upon other factors in the culture/economy. I love how no topic is too obscure or overly-visited for them to touch upon and weave into a fascinating picture of relationships and behavior. The logic behind it seemed very simple/obvious to me, but there were certainly facts and links I'd never heard of before. And it's all presented in an interesting way, stringing you along and helping you see how it all fits instead of presenting it as one would in a textbook.

There's certainly an irony in telling us to never trust experts (because they're just out to get what they want) and then coining a term for a type of economics and publishing a book about it for people to buy. But that doesn't matter much because the book at least gets you thinking about the way the world works. And it certainly entertains while doing so. I think with a peppier reader (or an accompanying paper copy of the book) I would have easily given it a 10 rating :-)

I PMed Tinkaday yesterday and heard back. We're working out the address situation since Tinkaday now lives in Germany. Thanks again for including me on this ring. It feels great to have finally read this modern classic.

Update: Tinkaday moved to Germany and asked to be skipped/reordered.
retrogirl1977 - already acquired a copy to read
aliciayoung - seems to have gone missing (wouldn't respond to multiple PMs and there are ISOs on the forum)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

All packaged up. Sending to yoteun tomorrow!

Thanks for sending it to me.
I received it yesterday.

Go to start listening right now.

Greetings :)

Nice to hear the audiobook.
I send LeishaCamden a pm for her adres.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This audiobook is on his way to LeishaCamden.
Mailed today.

This arrived in the mail today. Thanks, yoteun! That was quick! :-)

I'm really looking forward to 'reading' this book, but I will be going on a two-week holiday to Egypt soon (leaving on Friday) so it will have to wait until I get back.

Thanks for sharing, everyone! :-)

I started 'reading' this book today. So far absolutely fascinating!!