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Customer Reviews:
good
The plus: Very interesting book. Deep thoughts presented in an enjoyable fashion.
The minus: I am always in time pressure. The same information could have been condensed into 30% and I would have preferred that.
A poor sequel 
I really enjoyed "The undercover economist" it was well written, and most importantly was an excellent introduction to economics by using non-threatening examples. Tim Harford is obviously a very talented economist and has that rare ability of being able to explain the complexities of his knowledge simply to the layman like myself.
However he has obviously been corrupted. I found "Freakanomics" a little too flimsy and flashy for my tastes and yet it sold by the truck load. Harford makes numerous references to this book in the logic of Life and presumably thinks if he can be as sensational maybe he'd shift a few more copies of his own book. This sadly means that good ideas are sometimes explained in very gimmicky ways.
Similarly the writing style of many sales and American business books has been aped and I find it irritating that he didn't write that way in his first book. Maybe his tour of the US has rubbed off on him as he now uses far more American examples than anywhere else in the world. He also does that most irritating of tricks (to presumably keep the page numbers up) to tell you at the end of a chapter what he's going to show you in the next chapter- this conceit has never worked in my opinion and call me old fashion rather than preparing me for the delights on the next page maybe the author should stop writing and let me actually turn the page to find out what is next by myself.
Grumbling over, however the meat of the book is overall well explained and interesting to muse over. It is well researched and the sense of humour is still present. Maybe the inevitable book number 3 will be a return to form.
interesting, easy to read, but not well argued
This book seems to be mostly a review of the work of some economics researchers. It mostly looks at the rational motivations people have in some unusual (sometimes non-monetary) markets. Some of the ideas in the book are very interesting - racism in the jobmarket could be self-reinforcing, women may move to cities to be closer to rich men, etc - however I didn't feel there was enough detail to really convince me that the ideas proposed were correct. The book is really quick and easy to read, and I'd definitely prefer the book to have been more difficult and detailed, as it is you'll be able to pick lots of holes in it. But the book is definitely worth reading just for ideas that it sketches out, it won't blow your mind but it's fairly interesting.
Disappointment after The uncercover Economist 
I thought The Undercover Economist was great, so I was surprised at the significantly lower quality of this one.
Oscillating Wildly
A good book but the content swings wildly from common sense truisms, stopping off briefly at wild generalisations that appear to be backed up with evidence but only for a narrow band of parameters, before finally making some excellent insights, esp. regarding racism and the demographics of poverty.
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the logic of life, uncovering the new economics of everything. by tim harford. £8.99 05 mar 2009 paperback little, brown book group. a dazzling application of new economic theories to the world around us - by the author of the ...
http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/welcome.jsp?source=rss&isbn=0349120412
România obiectivă: Ultimele două cifre din CNP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logic-Life-Tim-Harford/dp/0349120412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249217057&sr=8-1. 02 august 2009 15:45 · Razvan Pascu spunea... Salut, incerc sa gasesc mailul tau si nu reusesc. Ma poti contacta te rog? ...
http://romaniadeieri.blogspot.com/2009/08/incrancenare.html
