Book Review: SuperFreakonomics

By: Steven D. Levitt (The Economist) & Stephen J. Dubner (The Writer)

Publisher: William Morrow

If you’ve read Freakonomics and enjoyed it, you should read it’s sequel, SuperFreakonomics.  There I said it–That’s the review in a nutshell.  For a more detailed review, continue reading.

Good news and bad news.  Bad news first: Freakonomics was a great book, and an enthralling read–easily one of my favorite books.  Maybe my expectations for Super- were a little too high, but the sequel didn’t quite fill the shoes set before it.  But, really, could it?  Freakonomics was fresh and provided a lot of food for thought–everything from sumo wrestling to crack dealing.   It was wholly original.  Maybe Super- just lacked the originality factor of its predecessor.  It feels as though the book was rushed, like the authors took whatever material they had on hand–left over from the original even–and cranked out another book (Ironically, in the Forward the authors tell us they tried to avoid doing this).

But it’s not all bad!  Believe me!  Good news:  It does offer its fair share of not your average insights.  Example: Prostitution in a Chicago park seems to peak every year around July 4th–the same time that family reunions peak in the very same park.  Hmm…  Super- seems to have a continuity (although at times it feels contrived) to it that I cannot recall from Freakonomics–however, I did read it two years ago.  Super- is a fine read, however, and applies to today, with a portion of the book devoted to global war–er…uhm…global cooling.  It’s also a quick read, coming in at about 200 pages, it’s nothing too serious.

In all, if you’ve read the first, read the second.  If you haven’t read the first–read the first.  Then consider the second.

Buy SuperFreakonomics Here

Buy Freakonomics Here

Also of note:

Freakonomics Blog from the NY Times and the Freakonomics Podcast