Here's a first-year book that encourages critical thinking and sparks discussion. Freakonomics addresses current social questions that students will enjoy arguing about both in the classroom and over coffee in the student union:

• Which is more dangerous?a gun or a swimming? • Why do drug dealers still live with their mothers? • What makes a perfect parent?

These may not sound like typical questions an economist asks, but Levitt is not your typical economist. He studies the mysteries of everyday life?from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing?and his conclusions regularly turn conventional wisdom on its head, helping students develop a critical eye to many things that are presented as fact. Freshman Common Read: Appalachian State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Louisville