I enjoyed Freakonomics as it served as a reminder that things are not always as they seem, and that really, most of us are gullable.  A reasonable set of topics is covered which makes for an exciting book without having its chapters drag on; however, is where the book falls flat is in providing a more detailed and analytical look at the data Levitt is using to reach his conclusions.  Readers are generally forced to take Levitt's word on his work because you can't explicitly see any of the data he's working with, aside from some early-chapter scantron data in an argument on teaching incentives.  Which brings me to another point - the early chapters were great in exercising your mind to think deeper than normal regarding performance incentives.  A few great points are brought up by Levitt on the chain reactions incentives have on society and workplace.  There are two chapters in the book regarding good parenting... which I never found to be all that interesting (and not because I'm not a parent), mainly because Levitt provides a far too repetitive look at child names, which ate up a lot of pages due to inefficient formatting of data tables by the publisher.  Freakonomics is a fairly short read, and didn't reveal anything overly "dazzling" as the front-page cover quotation states, but it is nonetheless a good read - even if only to discuss with others who have read it