“Not as good as the book” is a phrase one often hears when a movie is compared to the book it is based on. The same phrase applies also to this collection of blogs when compared to the original books. The idea, of course, is great (and a short piece kicking off the book with an ironic nod, comparing it to bottled water, discusses just this), but for me it does not work. This may be down to the selection of blogs, which are called “the very best” on the book. Many of these leave me completely cold, however, since they deal with the author’s personal experiences with poker, opinions on matters that were probably ‘hot’ at the moment and in the USA (I suppose the piece on “The Wire” is great, but I have never seen the show, sorry), and sports (which is not my subject anyway).

The book has been divided in chapters on risk perception (my words, they call it ‘How to be scared of the wrong thing’), sports and gambling, crime, and more, including some ‘miscellany’. There are some real good ones to be found at places, like the pieces on terrorism and airport security, but they are few and 350 pages can be long. I guess this would be much more fun reading them as blogs now and then, one at a day.

Published by: Allen Lane, 2015. ISBN 978-0-241-20039-1