When to Rob a Bank: ...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants

I didn't enjoy reading this as much as the 2 Freakinomics books.Took several months to get it...so long I forgot I ordered it.

I'm a fan of the Freakonomics series. I bought this while on travel one day. It made for a light read sitting in the airport terminal (and probably any other light reading venues...bathroom....beach). The content is not as 'prolific' as the previous two versions - meaning you will have less insights into economic relationships and probably won't be able to impress others with as many interesting factoids. So, this one is not as great as the first two - but I give it 4 stars because it is still a entertaining read.The authors state outright that the book is a summary of their online blog entries over the years. I'm a fan of the series, but didn't keep up with their online commentary - so all this was new to me. I regularly pay for bottled water - so I'm used to paying for free things. :)I'd say, if you are a fan of the Freakonomics books (like the writing and the linking of incentives).

This is a collection of the best blogs from the Freakonomics authors. I don't know why this book is getting such overall low reviews. It represents the same thinking outside the box attitude that we know and love from the two previous Freakonomics books. The writing has the same wry sense of humor, and is thought stimulating. Some of the blogs are funny stories, such as when one of them forgot he had his research papers about terrorism in his bag, and got held for questioning when he tried to go through airport security. Another favorite of mine was about being served rancid chicken in a high end restaurant, and even though the manager agreed that the chicken had turned, she refused to comp his meal. So, he published the story and the name of the restaurant in the NYT. Now, there was a lesson in customer service for her! I found this book to be very entertaining and mentally stimulating. I wonder if the people who gave it low ratings might have been unfamiliar with the Freakonomics way of thinking.

The final book in the freakonomics series is probably the least favourite of one of my favourite series. Consisting entirely of blog post entries from the Freakonomic.com website in the 10 years leading up until its publishing, it contains all the witticisms, curiosity and genius that have made the whole Freakonomics series such an easy-reading success. However, due to the nature of blogging, I did find this book to be a little stop-start and therefore less of a page turner that the rest of the series, and that did take away from the enjoyment and experience somewhat.Check out more reviews like this one on Instagram @myhonestbookreview

If you're already a fan of Freakonomics, this book is for you! It's a collection of the best blog posts from their blog over the last 10 years. It's very much in the style of all of the Freakonomics books, includes a few posts from guest writers, and all in all is yet another fascinating, thought provoking, and head spinning take on a wide variety of subjects. The book is even a bit broader than their previous books as they hit a wider range of topics.If you haven't read any of the Freakonomics books, this is a suitable introduction but I would highly recommend starting with their first book, Freakonomics, as the best introduction to this economist/journalist duo that have engender a cult following among many. If you like that book, then I highly recommend their other previous books Superfreakonomics and Think Like a Freak, in that order. If you read Freakonomics and didn't like it, then definitely don't bother with the others (although Think Like A Freak has some more practical applications than the other books).

I love the Freakonomics series of books and really enjoy Steven Dubner's writing. I also follow the podcast closely and was excited to hear about a new book release. I bought the book as soon as I heard it was available. I was a little put off though when I found out it was just a rehash of excerpts from the Freakenomics blog. I felt deceived. I gave it a chance and it turned out to be really good but wished they had advertised it more honestly. I think anyone that has enjoyed the first two books will find this is also an excellent read but don't buy it if you are up-to-date on their blog.

I really enjoyed the book, it had some really interesting blog posts. I gave it four out of five stars, because I would not have started the book with what was likely their most controversial blog posts -- regarding terrorists. It takes a lot to offend me, but I didn't want to read that chapter, and it almost turned me off to the book completely. I just skipped ahead after I realized what the blog post was about. I am not a fan of being controversial just to get a reaction, and it felt like the first chapter (or their original blog) was done to do just that.

Not as great as their full-fledged books, because there's no overarching theme, but rather just an assortment of blog posts. Some of them are boring, but most are interesting.The biggest drawback was that I didn't learn as much from this book as the other one by Dubner and leveitt.Note that all of these are available for free on the Freakanomics website. The only advantage the books offers is that they handpicked the ones they believe we're best, and they gave a short update on some of their posts.Overall, worth the $2 for the kindle edition.

With their original Freakonomics book, Americans Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt were pioneers in popularising the use of an economics mindset - both behavioural and more traditional - to explain all sorts of parts of modern (usually American) life.When to Rob a Bank is a lengthy collection of the best posts from the blog they launched at the same time. If you read too much of this book in one sitting, you quickly see the limitations of the blog format turned into a book: a hugely eclectic mix of topics, rarely explored in much depth and with many loose ends left flapping as the blog posts whirl past the eyes - especially as the absence of original blog posting dates means it is often unclear how much, if at all, an issue may have moved on since Dubner and Levitt wrote about it.But treated as a book to dip into now and again (which is truer to the original blog format), it works very well and even if you've been a diligent reader of their books and listener to their excellent Freakonomics podcast, you'll find nearly all the material fresh to you. It's only if you've been a close reader of their blog - and can remember all the posts from years back - that you may be disappointed. Or, of course, if you've not been a close reader of their blog but are willing to go read the posts online for free instead of pay for a book - but with the book you not only get the different format, you also get the editorial selection process which has filtered all their many posts down to this 'best of' selection.If the book is for you, there's much to learn here, not only about the eclectic range of topics but also - and perhaps most usefully - about how some of the basic concepts of economics can be used to help understand much of what goes on around us, providing a different and useful way to look at the world even without having to go into much maths or having much of a belief in all-conquering rational individuals, two of the most common bugbears about modern economics.

As economists of some reknown, Levitt and Dubner don't appear to recognise the law of diminishing returns, as this lazy reprint of blog posts from their Freakonomics website basically proves. Each post is short and pointless, offering no insights but just asking a question. Some of the longer ones get into a bit more, but these are few and far between. This will be my last Freakonomics book and I'll be wary of the podcast too, to see if they're just phoning it in now that the guest lecture circuit is obviously working for them.

If you have read other books by Levitt & Drubner, then this will be sure to delight. It is a collection of blog articles, so quick and easy to digest. Ideal to pick up and put down when time is at a premium. Probably not what you would choose if you are looking for detailed analysis of any of the topics discussed.

I've enjoyed the previous books tremendously giving them four or five stars. This one was a bit of a disappointment. It is merely a collection of blogs on their website and as such doesn't have the depth or detail that previous books do. Several of the blogs are interesting but many are not

I was a little disappointed by this book. It is a collection of blog posts as opposed to a well thought out book meaning that it doesn't flow brilliantly and there are a number of issues raised which you wish the guys would expand on.