Henry Spencer
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics,
by Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith,
HarperPerennial 1993, ISBN 0-06-273102-5,
$13.00 (as of 1995), softcover, 230 pp.
This is a book that's slightly off the beaten track. It's about one of those subjects that most ;login: readers were force-fed a small dose of during college, and have done their best to forget since. Now and then, alas, there comes a time when you have to refresh your memory because suddenly you need to use it. The best approach, of course, is to find someone who's already an expert and get them to help. Unfortunately, such people aren't always available, and when they are, they usually don't work cheap. So you may have to dust off the books instead.
This book might not be the first one you'd reach for, if you saw it on the shelf. It's not a big expensive college text full of equations, but a modest (and modestly- priced) softcover full of... cartoons?
Yes, it's full of cartoons. Larry Gonick is a professional cartoonist and comic-book artist. The format here is almost that of a comic book, although the text:picture ratio is higher, and there are indeed a few equations here and there. It's frequently amusing, and it's both easily understood and pleasant reading.
On the other hand, the content is non-trivial and correct. Woollcott Smith is a professor of statistics, well-known and widely respected. The book does an amazingly good job of painlessly explaining the basics of statistics, including both the methods and the pitfalls. Reading it does require a bit of concentration at times, and it won't make you a statistician, but it will give you a better idea of what the statisticians are talking about. It'll probably do a better job on that than the average introductory statistics course, unless the course has a very good instructor.
After I read the book, I made the mistake of showing it to my wife, then a statistician at University of Toronto. It was weeks before I saw my copy again; it made the rounds, and some folks who'd never entered a comic store in their lives went there to buy their own copies.
Now, a word of caution. If you need to do substantial statistics without a professional statistician to help, you'll still need that introductory textbook (the statistician who's currently looking over my shoulder recommends Moore and McCabe's Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 3nd edition), and maybe a reference book or two. Gonick and Smith get into some moderately sophisticated topics, but there are limits to what they can do in 230 heavily-illustrated pages. The textbook will be much more comprehensive and rigorous, and you'll need references for detailed methods. But you'll find them rather easier to read if you read this book first.
In fact, even if you're going to consult an expert instead, you'll find him/her easier to talk to if you read this book first. It will give you a good grounding on how statisticians approach things, and some understanding of the key issues.
In short, this book delivers statistical literacy, rather than detailed statistical knowledge, but it does its job well. If you're already on speaking terms with basic statistics, buy this book for amusement or not at all. But if you have barely a nodding acquaintance with statistics, and suddenly need to develop an intimate relationship, reading this book would be a good start.
copyright 1995,2003 Henry Spencer