There’s a price war going on among booksellers — WalMart is offering a handful of big new books for just $10, which forced Amazon to counter — but unfortunately, SuperFreakonomics is not one of them. On Amazon, it costs $16.19. Is it worth it?
To help you decide, here’s a roundup of some early notices for the book:
- TIME magazine: “It’s very good — jauntier and more assured than their first.
- Telegraph: “As one of the most successful writing partnerships in publishing, they make an entirely complementary and logical team in the same way that Jack Spratt and his wife did at the dinner table.”
- Smart Money: “SuperFreakonomics provides a refreshingly logical look at some divisive political problems, with studies that encourage the reader to look beyond the surface and to question common wisdom.”
- EconLog: “If everyone read SuperFreakonomics and believed it, the world would change for the better.”
- Wallet Pop: “It’s a book that will get you thinking after, if not before, any decision you make based on an incentive.”
And in The Week, Dubner and Levitt offer a list of six books they loved. Several have already been mentioned on this blog, and then there’s Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air, by David J.C. MacKay. Here’s what they write:
Anyone who wants to understand global warming — and not everyone does, since they’ve got their platitudes to defend — needs to find a physicist to cut through the fog. MacKay might be your man. His clarifying mantra: “Numbers, not adjectives.” Go ahead and unplug your phone charger every night if you must, he writes, but that’s the equivalent to “bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon.”
and 
. You can also watch it on 
‘I bought my copy for 23 dollars including shipping. Swedes value your books more than the average american!’
You value it about $73 more than this American.
Of course, the most economical way is to check a copy out form your local library. I’m showing multiple copies either already in the system or in process here in Maine.
its only $14.50 @ Wal-Marts website
I am now 100% sure that the Climate Change chapter in this book is going to be reacted to more vehemently and with more knee-jerk anger than the abortion chapter in the first Freakonomics.
carey – “Climate chane denier.” Don’t use stuff like this it’s lazy. Get more creative. In science we call them skeptics and they often turn out to be correct.
I am thinking of not buying this.. after reading #2 Eric.
Isnt that distracting? talking about price..than answering useful questions? perhaps, if you are right, that would boost the sales, not these tricks.
As usual, we Canadians get the short end of the stick and must pay over $23 for the book on Amazon.ca’s site.
Our dollar is almost on par with the U.S. dollar too!
Does the law of diminshing marginal returns apply to touting your book on the blog?