"Freakonomics" My Favorite Writing

One of my favorite books is "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The reason I enjoy this book and this style of writing is because it is straight forward and to the point. This book analyzes economics today and asks important questions that make you think. Some of the chapters have clever titles such as "What is more dangerous a gun or a swimming pool?" "What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on crime?" and my all time favorite "Why do drug dealers still live with their mothers?" These simple unasked questions may seem far fetched or irrelevant but they do provide insight into society and in some cases involve life-and-death. This book helped me to redefine and re-examine the modern world and how it actually works. Even the books cover makes you think. It is a picture of an apple with an orange inside. Strange, but at the same time intriguing. The writing in this book is candid, succinct, cunning and innovative which all play a role in driving home the main theme and purpose, thinking outside the lines. Here is an excerpt from the book that relates to the school of journalism:
"Advertising too is a brilliant tool for creating conventional wisdom. Listerine, for instance, was invented in the nineteenth century as a powerful surgical antiseptic. It was later sold, in distilled form, as a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea. But it wasn't a runaway success until the 1920s, when it was pitch as a solution for "chronic halitosis" -a then obscure medical term for bad breath. Listerine's new ads featured forlorn young women and men, eager for marriage but turned off by their mates rotten breath. "Can I be happy with him in spite of that?" one maiden asked herself. Until that time, bad breath was not conventionally considered such a catastrophe. But Listerine changed that. As the advertising scholar James B. Twitchell writes, "Listerine did not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis." In just seven years, the company's revenues rose from $115,000 to more than $8 million." To read more excerpts from this book, click on the link here. As you can see from the excerpt, this book is interesting not only because of the topic but also because of the writing style. I highly recommend picking this book up and seeing for yourself.