ABSTRACT
As a modest initial step toward answering this question, I will offer a number of storytelling device suggestions, which successful authors apply in order to turn a book on economics into a page turner. I prefer the terms ‘economics made exciting’ or ‘economic page turners’ over ‘economics-made-fun’ (Vromen 2009) because I focus on the way these books are written, rather than their subject (such as the grotesque side of certain bits of economic research featured by some). Freaky subjects alone make a nice contribution to any campus magazine, but not a memorable book. The real difficulty is to write in an enthralling way, making readers want to read on and on. Economic page turner writers are a bit like crime writers, who ‘have taken a decision that, even though they may feel they have something to say, they will subordinate the saying of it where necessary to the simple task of keeping their readers’ noses stuck in the pages’ (Keating 1986, p. 1). This marks the difference between my approach and that of McCloskey’s investigations on the rhetoric of economics: McCloskey (1994, 1998) asks how economists try to persuade. A typical economists’ audience consists of either fellow economists or people like politicians who are wondering whose advice to follow; in any case, the audience is interested in understanding who is right and who is wrong. An economist who convinces these audiences that he is right can gain academic reputation, or maybe consulting contracts. The general audience, the typical Freakonomics readers, cannot provide these benefits, but they can make a book a best seller through word-of-mouth. Convincing them that you are right will not do the job. My neighbor, who is a retired double bass player, will not recommend Freakonomics to my other neighbor, who is a pediatrician, just because he thinks that Levitt and Dubner (2005) are right. The main point is that he will recommend the book if he enjoyed reading it.
