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While browsing through the shelves of the library, I came across this book with an eye-catching orange coloured cover: Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything. At first glance, I initially thought it was just another book about the speculation of economic trends but one thing that eventually attracted me to flip open the book was its front cover, featuring a lime with an apple skin.

The bulk of the content is on how Steven Levitt, a John Bates Clark medal holder (awarded every two years to the best American economists under forty), views certain issues differently as compared to other leading economists. What do you think is the reason behind the drop in crime rates in the USA in the 1980s? Steven Levitt attributes it to the legalisation of abortion, which is the first question that he answers in the book, this therefore creates a certain level of suspense in order to cause readers to continue reading. His opinion is clearly explained, with data to back it up. However, when he aired his opinions to the mass media, he was criticised for his view.

You should not give this book a miss even if you are not an expert with statistics. This book is full of actual incidents, while Levitt gives his own opinion as to why they occurred. Thankfully, the statistics used in this book about economics can be understood, as Levitt and his co-writer have tried to avoid using economic theories and delving deeply into microeconomics because it would be too confusing for most readers with no knowledge of economics at all.

Once you have finished reading this book, you might find the economics is not that hard after all, as Levitt manages to highlight many different aspects of economics and simplifies them till the point where it almost seems like common sense. This book will really enlighten you about certain aspects of economics.

After you have read this book, you'll think things that comes to you twice, not wanting to follow the "conventional wisdom" as others or professional data and research that comes out from either some experts or the government. Everything will deserve a second look at that time. More research might come out from you and you might take any views into your consideration and argue with your peers sensibly over an issue.

How a name relates to a family's economic status? Ever wondered why a crack dealer (drugs dealer) wanted to sell cracks and involved in gang violence, risking their lives even the return is low? Is allowing your kids going to a house with a pool or to a home with guns is more dangerous? Which parenting books by all the parenting experts out there is correct? How a sumo wrestler and school teacher cheats? If you have trouble finding this out or maybe the answer you are having now may just be conventional wisdom then check out Freakonomics for some surprising answers!

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How Buffett Does It - 24 Simple Investing Strategies From The World's Greatest Value Investor is a simple guidebook for starters in the equity trading field. This book by James Pardoe, a Warren Buffett follower, focuses on an important and successful technique, used by the second richest man on Earth: value investing, which basically refers to the trading of stocks according to an enterprise's intrinsic value.

For a starter like me, this book is simple yet resourceful. All those complex numbers, formulas, and so called "get rich fast" methods are nowhere to be seen in this book. Diction used is easy to understand, without all those Wall Street jargons. All you need to do is to read page by page, understand all the ethics, steps and the attitude needed to become a successful value investor.

Why read a value investing guide that teaches you a slower way to get rich instead of those guides that contain all those formulas that "promise" you big bucks in no time? Well, the answer I can give you is simple. Warren Buffett used value investing and has thus became one of the richest men in the world. Can you name me any other investor that uses all those high end tickers, formulas and even stocks analysing tactics whose net worth can be compared with Buffett's?

The 24 strategies within in the book are easy to follow. The reason why people have such a tough time making money out of the stock market is simply because of their attitudes, as the chapters keep highlighting the ethics of value investing. The book exposes all those myths such as buying a few stocks as reserve, selling when the market is falling, getting insider tips, reading stock trends, buying and selling frequently to get the most out of it, etc. Because as far as Warren Buffett is concerned, they're all not true.

This book also recommends a few other books on the same topic, such as The Intelligent Investor by Buffett's mentor, Banjamin Graham and BerkshireHathaway.com, the official site of Warren Buffett's company. Value investing, as pointed out in that book, is contradictory with other major investment books out there so you'll have to choose if you want to read up on this particular technique.

However, I find that the elaboration on some strategies get repetitive at times and a lot of it is merely there to fill up the 24 tips. The most significant tip is the 24th one which is a conclusion of all the other tips. You really need to have enough nerves in order follow the guides stated as the book keeps telling you to trust yourself and to ignore everyone else.

How Buffett Does It is definitely a good book but whether the advice given is to be heeded is totally up to you. However, one good reason to heed it is that the man who followed these steps made billions out of the stock market.

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Despite the title of the book, Nineteen Eighty-Four (also referred to as 1984)was actually first released more than 50 years ago, way back in 1949, just 4 years after World War II was over. Considering the time period, it was a pretty bold move for George Orwell to write such a book as it contains many radical ideas and themes. It generated so much controversy up till the point where it was banned in several libraries around the world.

However, along with a few other books, 1984 has often been cited as one of the most famous dystopian novels out there. Having not only left a profound impact on English Literature as a whole, till the point where even the author's name is now an actual english word. "Orwellian" has come to be used to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted in the novel. As if adding a new word to the English dictionary wasn't enough, 1984 has been translated into 62 other languages, so that no matter what language you read, you can still enjoy this book.

As it was written in 1949, Orwell tried to depict what life would be like in the year 1984, and it is a really frightening world to live in to say the least. The story mainly focuses around the life of Winston Smith, who works at the "Ministry of Truth". His job? To re-write history every single day. Yes, literally, he does all sorts of things, from editing a few sentences, or removing a picture from somewhere, or at times rewriting an entire newspaper article to replace the current one in the archives. All for the sake of ensuring that history is what the Party wants it to be. Furthermore, people are constantly monitored 24/7, as there are "telescreens" all over the place that serve to keep track of every action and every word that is spoken by the citizens of Oceania, which is the fictitious country this novel is set in, through cameras and microphones. They are found in every street, every building, and even every single home. People don't even have any privacy at all when they're in their very home. The telescreen also doubles as a television, but there is only one channel, which keeps on spewing out propaganda. Every single citizen is brainwashed to believe that the Party is something like the "almighty god", and that whatever they do is right and nobody should ever question the authority or position of the Party. If anyone is caught having rebellious or revolutionary thoughts, or in other words committing "thoughtcrime", they would be severely dealt with by the Thought Police. Even the children are encouraged to report their very own parents if they were found to have any anti-Party thoughts. There have been incidents whereby people just suddenly disappear from the face of the earth, without any explanation why he/she went missing, and nobody would dare or bother ask what had happened. Every single record of him/her would be erased and it would be as if the person hadn't existed. The worst part is that the people are brainwashed till the point where the process of having sex with one's husband or wife is merely for reproductive purposes, and is commonly referred to as the couple's "duty to the Party" to produce even more children. That is the amazingly frightening world of 1984.

It's hard for me to really describe what the world is actually like, because the only person that can really do it is Orwell himself. I don't want to give away any of the plot either, as it would take me too long to summarise it all anyway. Let me just state here that the plot is absolutely full of twists and there is no way at all to guess what will happen next. Anyone who reads it for the first time will definitely get many many shocks and surprises along the way. The way Orwell manages to describe everything really strikes fear into your heart if you were to imagine yourself living in such a society, where you had no freedom, no privacy, and couldn't even think what you wanted to think. The first part of the book might be a bit boring for some, as the plot never progresses at all. Orwell describes EVERY detail about the world of 1984, from the telescreens, to the nature of the party, the Thought Police, and even Newspeak, which is a supposedly "new" form of English used in 1984. However, once he's done with those in part one, the plot really begins to kick into high gear, as events occur one after another. Readers will definitely be engrossed in the plot and cannot wait to turn the page to find out what happens next. Yes, the plot is that good.

One of the reasons why I wrote a review on this book is because it is freely able for download to read. The copyright has expired or something, and it's legal to share the book online now. The link to the ENTIRE BOOK can be found below. Unfortunately, it's a soft copy, so unless you print it out, be prepared to stick to your computer screen for quite awhile.

All in all, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a definite must-read book for people who enjoy dystopian novels, and everyone else who enjoys reading once in awhile shouldn't miss out on it either.

In short,
Pros: Practically everything
Cons: Practically nothing

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