Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
In the vein of “books I want my kids to read”, i started this book with my daughter as an audiobook. As with the other audiobooks we listen to, she doesn’t get a choice but she was also interested enough to actually not tell me to stop (like she has with other books…grr, kids with their opinion and all that stuff).
Anyhow, I originally read this book back in the early 2000s or so when the book was released and this was the 20th anniversary of that (boy am i old). And the first few stories were just as compelling as I found it. Among the best ones were the “what do sumo wrestlers, and politicians have in common”, wherein they go into how cheating works and how voting works, and how sumo wrestlers and politicans both have the same method as to get elected (or to maintain their rank status in sumo).
the other one that was great was about “why do drug dealers still live with their moms” which goes into huge details of how a drug dealer operation work in detail. It goes deep into what the reseracher had to do, how he gained the trust of the gang, and what evantually happened to the gang, and why the gang operates more like a modern company than anything else, and yes. also why do drug dealers live with their moms (because they don’t get paid very much).
These two are worth the price of admission alone and the rest of the stories can be counted as bonus, but more importantly, I got my kid to listen to an economics book and she didn’t ask for another book. Great success!