book review: Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

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Superfreakonomics is the follow-up to the wildly successful Freakonomics, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This edition is more of the same. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. If you didn't, then you probably won't. If you haven't read either, read the first one. This one is interesting, mostly, but the last chapter was a bit of a drag for me. There are some fascinating theories, statistics and illustrations. For the fans of their New York Times blog, however, there's not much that's new. The first book was a novelty, and a fascinating interdisciplinary one. This book is clearly a concerted effort, and it's enjoyable, but I recall random trivia and interesting points rather than the overarching themes. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Will I still talk about it at dinner parties in five years as I still talk about some of the theories in the first one? Well, I will reference one specific chapter.

In short, I loved it, although not quite as much as the first one.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5 stars)
Pages: 288 (but 60 of that are the thorough footnotes)
Publication date: October 2009
Source: my local academic library


As an Amazon Associate, I will receive a small commission if you purchase this book through the above link.

Comments

  1. A Bookshelf MonstrosityDecember 23, 2009 at 4:39 PM

    I still haven't read the first one, though I want to. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this one as well.

    ReplyDelete

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