Reddit reviews Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science

https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics-Undressing-Dismal-Science/dp/0393356493/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Chicago uses it alongside the Mankiw text in the intro micro/macro classes. Great readable intro to the economics concepts get defined more rigorously in the textbooks. You can just pick it up and read it casually, like you would Freakonomics, but its goal is to teach intro concepts rather than give "neat" examples of economics at play.

I 100% agree that suggesting textbooks to people who ask questions like this is just completely out of touch. Half of the kids in an intro econ class don't even read most of the textbook...they learn from the lectures/supplementary readings and only review the textbook enough to finish the homework assignments.

Maybe /u/grok_it is one of the few people who wants to actually crack a textbook in their free time, but most people would be better served by something like Naked Economics.

Freakonomics (and sequel) are entertaining, but they don't actually explain economics--they try to use economics to explain other things. In doing so, they explain a few economic concepts, but that was never their goal.

If you want some enjoyable reading that actually aims to teach econ, I highly recommend naked economics. It is well written, easy to understand, and a number of elite undergrad econ classes use it as a companion to a "real" textbook (like Mankiw) because it does a really good job building intuition. Covers micro and macro, and I might not have majored in econ had I not read it in my intro class.

You can get older editions super cheap on amazon...I can't say what the differences are, but they probably all cover the basics. What you'd miss out on by using an older edition is probably refined explanation of the financial crisis (which might be worth the extra few bucks).