Freakonomics

Just read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Wow. What a book, it really opens your mind about connections in life and how to not just assume the obvious.
        Levitt, an accomplished economist, graduating from both Harvard and MIT, and Dubner, a journalist, who has previously worked at places such as The New York Times Magazine, explore the riddles of everyday life that seem to be overlooked by the 'common man', such as 'which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?' , coming up with explanations that are completely logical, yet seem to leave you turning conventional wisdom on its head.
        My favourite explanation comes from almost the very start of the book, why did crime rates in Chicago suddenly drop at the start of the 1990s, when almost everyone was predicting them to go incompletely  the opposite direction? Well from Levitt and Dubner's impeccable logic, they explain to us how it was not the commonly thought idea of an unbelievably good police department, instead it was due to the fact that abortion had been made legal a couple of decades earlier, a conclusion neither myself or I suspect many other would reach.
        In conclusion, Freakonomics is a book not just for economists and economic students, but anyone wanting a good read to open their mind to abstract thinking and to the old economic principle of how incentives work.