I saw the book in the New Books shelf at our local library, and dropped it into my book-bag not sure if I'd even open it. It was just that I had read that this book had come out and was curious.I first came to know of Sudhir Venkatesh from the book Freakonomics -- he is the grad student mentioned in the chapter "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?" At that time, I wanted to learn about this person Sudhir.
One evening, maybe two years ago, driving around town, I happened to be listening to a piece on "This American Life" and Sudhir was narrating one episode. In that program, they also mentioned an upcoming book.
Anyway, late last Saturday night (technically Sunday 2am) I just couldn't go to sleep due to a persistent jet-lag so I gave up trying to sleep, got the book and started reading. And I was hooked. It was past 530am when I put down the book (and that was just so that I could watch an IPL 20-20 cricket game.)
I found the insights into the lives of the people he describes very fascinating and illuminating. The anecdotes were very interesting and so I guess I kept reading. It normally takes me anywhere from 10-20 days to finish a book, and this one has 290 pages but by Tuesday I was done.
If street-life fascinates you, then I think you will enjoy this book
