Best All Purpose/General Intro.to Economics Book?

This might have come up before, but I didn't want to necropost any fading away topics.

A few months ago, when my local used book stores went out of business (rent was too expensive due to the metro... :grumble: ), one of the books I managed to grab during their closing sale was "Economics: A Self-Teaching Guide" by Steve Slavin.  I was wondering if anyone had read this book and/or heard good things about it (Google has yielded nothing but listings for it).

This brings me to the more general topic:

What would you recommend as the best introductory book to economics (and if the book above checks out, would it be a good book to start out with) ?

I'm mainly looking for a general introduction, nothing hugely in-depth concerning theory, but engrossing enough to keep my interests.  I think I remember a topic a while ago that somewhat addressed this, but I am not sure.

As for my question, the main reason I ask why is because while I would not mind further economic reading, I do not wish to handicap myself by starting out with a possibly biased or poorly written book (thus, the question concerning the book by steve slavin).  

Man, Economy, and State by Rothbard, free on-line at mises.org

Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt, free on-line at ?, search it

 Excellent, I remembered Hazlitt being one of previous authors mentioned; I just couldnt remember the title.

The Making of Modern Economics by Mark Skousen is excellent. It really brings the subject alive and is very readable.

The book by Hazlitt you might be thinking of is "economics in one lesson."  Search on google and there is an online version of it.  It is an updated version with numbers that can relate more to today, and someone even added an extra chapter(on rent control).  He basically follows Bastiat's "what is seen, and what is not seen" logic. 

I found the Economic Way of Thinking by Paul Heyne to be an excellent starter. Although Heyne died in 2000, the book has been updated by Peter Boettke and David Prychitko. Boettke is a professor at George Mason U so he is a free market guy. Might want to check out his blog The Austrian Economists.

More than that, Boettke is an outstanding 'Austrian' theorist.

The book that got me into economics is fantastic.  Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Citizens-Economy-Expanded/dp/0465081452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206221091&sr=8-2

 Absolutely fantastic book.  I cannot recommend it enough.  

 Gene Callahan's Economics for Real People is another good one.

Callahan's http://www.mises.org/books/econforrealpeople.pdf - is also on-line.

you must check out mises' "economic policy: thoughts for today and tomorrow" as well...its free on mises.org...its brilliant..not theoreticl but its typical mises...going striaght to the heart of the matter...

MarkRussell:

The book that got me into economics is fantastic.  Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Citizens-Economy-Expanded/dp/0465081452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206221091&sr=8-2

 Absolutely fantastic book.  I cannot recommend it enough.  

There is a new edition of that book out: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Common-Sense-Economy/dp/0465002609/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206263047&sr=1-1

And yes it IS the best introduction economics book. Thomas Sowell was who got me interested in economics in the first place.