This is the breakthrough “business” book of the moment. Economist Steven Levitt and New York Times writer Stephen J. Dubner, take us through a very strange selection of essentially interesting facts and stories.
At the outset of the book, they explain that there’s no real “theme” to this book. Instead they jump around the place. What’s different is that the subjects attacked are looked at from a slightly different perspective. So we get everything from cheating in Sumo Wrestling to the success of children based on their names. Most controversially Levitt draws a conclusion that the falling crime rate is likely to be directly related to the introduction of legalised abortion.
It’s not all as serious as that, and this is a very accessible book that’s going to leave you wowing your friends at the pub for many weeks to come as you regurgitate facts. Indeed only this evening I heard the first episode of the very fine Geoff Show on Virgin Radio talking about the Ku Klux Klan story. OK, so it was more a question of the fact that the racist organisation’s name is the “Ku” Klux Klan and not “Klu Klux Klan” as many of us had previously thought that was being discussed. I’d hoped that they’d talk more about the fact that a guy joined the Klan undercover and then passed on all the secret codes and passwords to the producers of the radio serial Superman. They then included them in their scripts so that the next day all the kids were running around spouting supposed secret codes ridiculing the organisation. But, a discussion about whether “Ku Klux Klan” is onomatopoeiac or alliterative. It’s the latter.
The only thing I didn’t like about this book were the rather portentious pieces that were lifted from an article that Dubner wrote about Levitt in the New York Times Magazine. He said lots of wonderful things about Levitt, but it seems a bit like you’re blowing your own trumpet to include those excerpt in the book itself. Having praise on the cover is fine – we seperate that from the book’s actual content.
Overall, a fascinating read. And it comes out in paperback in a couple of months (although you can buy your paperback at airports now, and I believe it’s half-price in Borders’ sale).