"Bringing Down the House"

I am definitely in the wrong line of work. I just finished reading “Bringing Down the House,” by Ben Mezrich, and I am ready to hop on a plane to Vegas and hit the blackjack tables. OK, maybe I don’t have the mathematical genius of the MIT students who figured out how to win millions of dollars by counting cards. And, I guess there are some pitfalls involved, like when the casinos figure out what you’re doing. (Guess what? They don’t like it very much, even though card counting is technically legal.) So, maybe I’ll rethink that plan. But I still highly recommend this book, which is compulsively page-turning. Probably a good book to read on a long plane trip.

It’s also being turned into a movie called “21,” starring Kevin Spacey and a few other big names. MIT refused to let them shoot on campus, so all of the campus scenes were shot at BU (a slightly more aesthetic locale). The producers caused gridlock in Boston a few weeks ago by shutting down the Mass. Ave. bridge to shoot there, but if the movie is as good as the book, it’ll be worthwhile.