currently reading

i came to hong kong equipped with a collection of short stories by ernest hemingway, but have been temporarily sidetracked by steven levitt's freakonomics. saw it in a book fair here and promptly bought it after a few pages. difficult to give a good, quick summary because each chapter vary in topic, so here is an excerpt of publishing weekly's review:

Forget your image of an economist as a crusty professor worried about fluctuating interest rates: Levitt focuses his attention on more intimate real-world issues...There isn't really a grand theory of everything here, except perhaps the suggestion that self-styled experts have a vested interest in promoting conventional wisdom even when it's wrong... [deconstructing] everything from the organizational structure of drug-dealing gangs to baby-naming patterns. Underlying all these research subjects is a belief that complex phenomena can be understood if we find the right perspective.

it sounds a bit on the dull side, but it's such a fun read. not nearly as dense as it seems... in fact it's easy to read and very humorous at times. started it on the way to bangkok and i am already halfway through. highly recommended for the curious minded.