The book, Freakonomics, is a non-fiction book that strips back conventional wisdom and reveals the truth, or most often lack thereof, through data which is presented and explained in a very clean and effective manner.

The book is structured so that it is divided into different questions, ranging from “Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?” to “How much do parents really matter?”. Throughout each chapter the book provides the reader with the data surrounding the issue and explains how it can be interpreted, often leading to answers that, while they may not have been what we expected, make sense when coupled with the hard evidence the data provides. This is what makes this book such a life-altering experience. By being shown numerous examples of our conventional wisdom conflicting with the data on an issue the reader’s world view is deeply altered. Not only does the reader gain a  better understanding of the questions covered in the book, but they also realize that in order to better understand the world they must be willing to look past the conventional wisdom and base their understanding on the facts and data. 

Unfortunately, this enlightening experience is marred slightly by the aging of some of the book’s conclusions. In particular, the book greatly overestimated abortion’s effect on the sharp crime rate drop America experienced during the 1990s, just something to keep in mind during your reading. Otherwise, this book still holds up factually now, and one error, albeit a fairly major one, should not turn you away from reading, as it is only one conclusion of the many drawn in the book.

Overall, this book is a very eye-opening and enlightening experience that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys non-fiction. On top of this, the writing style employed keeps the book quite entertaining and I strongly believe it is well worth your time.