FREAKONOMICS

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything. By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

This book is awesome. Freakonomics is a non-fiction book about everything from drugs to parenting to abortion to swimming pools to sumo wrestlers. There is no common theme to the book except the idea to thinking about things from a different angle. As an example, near the beginning of the book Levitt talks about crime in the 90s. Crime was on the rise and all experts were pointing toward even further escalation when there was a dramatic crime drop. The accepted explanation was that the war against crime though extra police officers and tougher laws was becoming effective. Levitt decided to look at it from a different angle. He believes the crime drop can be explained by the court case Roe Vs. Wade. This case made abortion legal. Levitt argues that a whole generation of criminals were never born because of abortion.

There are many other examples in this book that make you look at things a different way that is not quite the norm.