![]() The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia $26.99 The charts in this book are very pretty to look at, but the quantative approach in many of them was so bad and so confusing, that for the first 50 or so pages I thought this book was a spoof. On page 10, an area representing $21B is larger than one representing $27B, and $60B looks to be about half of $230B. On pages 60 - 65 the charts have no labels whatsoever, and so there's literally no way to tell what they're trying to say: it's just six pages of colorful polygons. You'll find these kinds of blunders on almost every page; I've just chosen a few early ones. I know it seems like I'm nit-picking, but for a book claiming in its subtitle to be some kind of statistical "guide," such flaws are fatal. If you're at all interested in examples of beautifully presented and accurate information, please read Beautiful Evidence or The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition instead. This is the only review I have ever written on Amazon, and I'll probably never write another, but this book and the other reviews are so misguided that I had to speak up. ![]() Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don't Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do $25.95 I am still waiting for a book that was ordered October 10. It was said that I would have the book within a week or two and it is now Nov. 13 and I still have not received it or an email from the critic that I was suppose to contact if there was a problem with the order. So this is not a good review at all. Very displeased. Probably will not order from Amazon again. |
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