I checked Freakonomics (by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner) out of the library last week and read it in an evening. It's mostly a sampler of surprising results that have come from applied economics techniques to aspects of everyday life. I've seen the most press about the one showing that legalizing abortion has led to a lower crime rate. It's a quick interesting read, but I wanted more.

Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots is the third Thursday Next book. It had very funny bits throughout, but overall wasn't as good as the first two. I've been assured that book four gets better again. In this one Thursday takes refuge in an unpublished book and does work for Jurisfiction.

Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter is one of the books I'd bought last time I was at Borderlands Books in SF. I think I had heard of it mostly based on Neil Gaiman's recommendation (I'd read his introduction to it somewhere). I liked the story, but something about his writing style tripped me up occasionally and made it take awhile to get through.

Last night I started The Cats Pajamas, a book of short stories by James Morrow. Short stories sometimes frustrate me, but Morrow's generally hold my interest very well. Paul Di Filippo and Greg Egan both have this talent as well.

My train reading this week is Iain M. Banks' Excession.
posted by kristin at 11:10 AM