Monday Reads..

I finally get the time to make a post...My reading has drastically come down in the last 2 months and I just don't feel good about it...work has been the main culprit, in addition to a busy personal & social life! But I hope to finish the 5 books I have on my list before the end of this year.. hmm..that's quite an ambitious target!






Books read in the last 2 weeks

1. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt - one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year...

2. But then again I could be wrong by Jim Rising - my first book in the humour/comedy genre..a very light read... can be a good break between 2 intense books

Currently reading:

1. To Sir With Love by E.R Braithwaite - this is part of the Orbis Terrarum Challenge'09

2. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - I badly want to finish this. It's been 3 months since I started this one! :(

In the pipeline:
1. Life after 187 by Wade Halverson

2. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda

Head over to J.Kaye's blog to see what other bloggers are reading this week...

Freakonomics

Author: Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 210
Rating: 5/5

Synopsis: Freakonomics is a collection of economic articles by Levitt & co-author Dubner wherein they unravel the mysteries behind the events and issues we encounter in our everyday life, based on their 'unconventional' economic theories. The authors state that there is no unifying theme in the book, though the aim is to explore the 'hidden side of things'

I've been wanting to read this book for ages now and am glad I did it finally. It's one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year. One word that comes to my mind when I think of this book is - Unconventional. The book is not based on the typical economic theories and numbers. It gives a completely different view of the world. Some of the conclusions drawn by Levitt are just unbelievable and close to earth-shattering!

Levitt has a great knack of staying away from convention. He unravels the assumptions & myths layer by layer to present the 'real causes' behind the trends. The book is pretty much like a set of case studies where Levitt takes a few significant historical events (a mundane set of open-ended questions) and analyzes the trends to finally arrive at that one particular moment which actually caused the event.

The book encourages us to think laterally, out of the box, to keep our eyes open and minds alert and break out of the conventional ways of thinking and see through the trends with a fresh eye. In short, it makes economics seem like fun!

Highly recommeded ....A must read!!

But then again I could be wrong

Author: Jim Rising
Genre: Humour/Comedy
Pages: 228
Publisher: Tribute Books
My Rating: 3.0/5

I received this book last month as a review copy from Tribute Books (http://www.tribute-books.com/ ). Thanks to Nicole for sending across this copy to me!

Jim Rising, the author, is the program director of 102.3 The Mountain WDMT and hosts a weekly show called "Rising at Ten". This book is a collection of some of these shows from the past few years.

As the title suggests, this book is nothing but full of rants. It's not really stand-up comedy, so don't expect to have a hearty laugh. But it's quite funny and a good source of entertainment. It's a collection of Jim's personal experiences and mundane activities and other random life situations which are presented in a humorous way..The nice part of the book is that Jim talks about those small things in life which we usually think about...He has a very unique take on life and it makes you wonder if he is reading into your thoughts!

Each of the rants is just about 2 pages long and that makes it an easy read. Some of them are extremely hilarious while a few others have some inspiring & thoughtful messages. However, I did find a few of them quite boring and bland which I just skipped through. Jim's style is quite different, so it takes a bit of getting used to, in order to understand his sense of humor. 10-20 snippets down the line, I got a hang of it and enjoyed reading it...

I feel that an audio version of this book would be a better choice, something that you can listen to while driving or doing some mindless tasks ...for those times when you don't want to stretch your mind a lot...