This ebook review is a little different that some of our past reviews, for a very simple reason. How We Got Here: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Financial Crisis, Part One is different from many of the ebooks we’ve reviewed recently. For one thing, while the author of this book is Tom Gorman, it’s a CIG book — part of a huge series with a very set approach to design and content for each of its books. Whether you’re looking at The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Las Vegas or The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Organic Living, you can tell at a glance that you’re looking at books from the same series.

What Makes This CIG Special?

Typically, you can find any Complete Idiot’s Guide at your local bookstore, but The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Financial Crisis is only available as an ebook. It’s priced differently ($3.99 through Amazon, unlike most of the series which has a price point somewhere around twenty bucks, dropping closer to ten bucks if you buy through Amazon).

The other big difference is that Gorman explicitly lays out the fact that this ebook will be updated in the introduction:

The story of this financial and economic crisis is complex in its characters, settings, events, plotlines and potential endings—and it is far from over. Therefore, this guide—the first original e-book from Alpha/Penguin, the publishers of the well-known Complete Idiot’s Guides—will explain the roots, players, dynamics and other key aspects of this crisis in plain English. It will also leave out the political agendas, finger-pointing, and sales messages that characterize most sources of information on this subject. And it will provide coverage, commentary, advice, and recommendations as the crisis continues to unfold.

One of the selling points of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Financial Crisis is that it will be updated as the financial crisis evolves. The ebook is released in installments — hence the ‘Part 1′ on the title. It won’t update quite as quicly as a blog or newsletter, but readers will likely be willing to trade off immediacy for an authoritative explanation of just what the heck is going on with the economy.

It’s a big shift for the line of the Complete Idiot’s Guides, but as more readers turn to online sources for the sort of basic information that the guides provide, it’s a good decision. This sort of approach will keep the guides relevant online as well as off.