I started Griftopia on Saturday and finished it on Sunday, one book in one weekend. It was that much fun to read. It was also infuriating, but that’s what it was supposed to be, so good on Matt Taibbi.

Griftopia is a collection of articles Taibbi wrote for Rolling Stone magazine about our current economic crisis, and if you think it’s just about over, you won’t after you read this book, so pick your reading material carefully.

Something else to watch out for: Taibbi pulls no punches. When he thinks someone’s acting like an asshole, he calls that guy an asshole. The first chapter of the book, about Alan Greenspan’s rise to power, is titled “The Biggest Asshole in the Universe.” I don’t know how Taibbi avoids being sued six ways from Sunday. Maybe he doesn’t, and all his royalties go straight to his legal defense fund.

I have to admit, the name-calling was just a bit of a turn-off. I don’t mind it when it comes from someone like Lewis Black, but he’s a comedian. Taibbi has a reputation as a gonzo journalist, and as a career that’s supposed to make a little name-calling all right, but to my way of thinking it sends conflicting signals. Name-calling is making fun of people, the way unsophisticated children make fun of people, and a book like this seems to be anything but unsophisticated. I had some trouble reconciling the mean-spirited name-calling with the sophisticated deconstruction of fiduciary malfeasance.

And if Taibbi was not attempting to write to a sophisticated audience, then where the hell did he get off writing a line like this one:

“Almost everyone in America is familiar with the Sherman Antitrust Act, and most people have a fairly good idea of why it was enacted.”

Almost everyone? Really? I live in a college town, and I’ll bet a crisp new fifty-dollar bill I could walk into any coffee shop on State Street and utterly fail to find ten people who could demonstrate their familiarity with the Sherman Antitrust Act or tell me why it was enacted.

But I have to admit Griftopia was still a fun book to read. I can enjoy reading a book I have disagreements with.