I guess the most awaited books of the year. Pre-ordered both on Amazon.

Michael Crichton was my first favourite author. If Great Train Robbery and Eaters of the dead are any indicators, Crichton does period dramas with elan. Pirate Latitudes was discovered as a complete manuscript in his files after his death in 2008.

The Pirate Latitude book trailer on youtube

[bubblecast id=285134]

Levitt and Dubner are back with more questions, some of which we wish we asked, some that you’ll never know where they came from. This one will keep me thinking, now that I’ve done a sem of Applied Micro. From the blurb,

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as:

* How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?
* Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands?
* How much good do car seats do?
* What’s the best way to catch a terrorist?
* Did TV cause a rise in crime?

Superfreakonomics releases tommorrow Oct 20th, and Crichton is out on Nov 24th. And its probably the best time to buy these books with the hottest pricing wars between Amazon, and (I didn’t see this coming) Walmart. The days WSJ reads

In the latest escalation, Wal-Mart announced last week it was cutting the price of 10 popular books online to $10. When Amazon quickly reciprocated, Wal-Mart dropped its price to $9. After Amazon copied that move too, Wal-Mart cut its price to $8.99.