"The Visual Miscellaneum" is a unique, groundbreaking look at the modern information age, helping readers make sense of the countless statistics... read full description
reviews
May 12, 2010
Michael
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What a crashing disappointment. This book, which positions itself as a showboat of creative data visualization, LOOKS great. It is initially fun to browse. But it is no fun to pay attention to, as you soon realize that almost every single item on display is marred by something. The something differs from image to image -- sometimes it's just that the information is pointless, but often the most fundamental laws of visual representation are ignored. Indeed, several images do a considerably w
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Aug 31, 2010
Montana
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Some of the visual maps were very useful, others were too wordy (and in my opinion failed as simplified visual maps), but almost all contained fascinating statistics and trivia. I particularly liked the "Books Everyone Should Read" (consensus cloud), "The Book of You" (your genome), "Low Resolution" (amount of sensory information reaching the brain per second), "Body by" (nerve endings, insurance value, calories used and google hits) and the quite horrifyi
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May 19, 2010
Cody
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Visually stunning and a few interesting things of note. Unfortunately, this book is VERY British which looses something in the translation as I am sure you will find out when reading. It also have several factual errors for a book that is this new. It also is VERY confusing and has left things out (i.e. a chart comparing diets has NO KEY to figure out WHAt they are comparing).
If you are a trivia buff like I am there are numerous books better than this one unless you can find a cop More...
If you are a trivia buff like I am there are numerous books better than this one unless you can find a cop More...
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Apr 12, 2011
Tabitha
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This is a really lovely book. The design of the infographics are eye catching and inviting. Its definitly worth a look. This book will also give you a look into some ideas and information that you'll want to find out more about. I think that McCandless' fabulous work gives some otherwise mundane information a liveliness and interest that fully supports his assertion that information is beautiful. I'm looking at you color trends in women's clothing :)
Feb 20, 2010
Kristi
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The Visual Miscellaneum book is colorful and whimsical. Certain pages definitely struck my interest more than others. Yet some of the information is disorganized, hard to read, and perplexing to interpret. Many of the pages are based on subjective perceptions of Mr. McCandless - as an example, delineating on a picture of the highest grossing films out of Hollywood a line marked "Worth Watching" where Mr. McCandless decided which films were worth viewing. Many other pages deal with
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May 16, 2011
Lauren
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While I can't help but subconciously evaluating a book for factual content and questioning the data he chooses to display, even a book on design, I thoroughly love this book. Too often we're left with a pie chart, a bar graph, or a table to explain all of the data in the world, and McCandless does an admirable job at tackling the dissemination of information in new, intuitive ways.
Oct 04, 2010
“The Visual Miscellaneum” is a poorly, inadequate representation of data. Despite the exuberant, colorful, and pert graphs and charts, there was not that much else to offer. Many of the graphs were difficult to discern and would be difficult to prognosticate for future events. Some of the data was informative, but in totality of things most of it is tiring and somewhat leaves you delusional after trying to chase each piece of information.
Mar 01, 2010
Kaleena
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so pretty, so intriguing. I'm not sure at what point I can mark it as "read" because I could prolly spend days and days "reading" this book.
There were a couple charts that seemed like they were flat out missing the key or legend or something. (The simple truth I and II) Hopefully it will be fixed for the second edition?!
There were a couple charts that seemed like they were flat out missing the key or legend or something. (The simple truth I and II) Hopefully it will be fixed for the second edition?!
Jan 29, 2012
Mark
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It feels strange to say that I "read" this book that is full of really cool infographics on subjects like: Rock and Roll, Complentary tastes, Who runs the world? and What fish are ok to eat? This book really changed my perceptions about information representation and what makes a good infographic.
Sep 18, 2010
Esther
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A book with a variety of infographics, ranging from idiosyncratic details about dictators' wives, to excerpts from "searches for phrases beginning with "I want" on popular dating sites (one which includes "to make my Master happy sir" and atrocious misspellings like "meet a waman for sex and maiby more"
Aug 10, 2011
Leah
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Extremely interesting ways to visually represent trivia. Fun read. Not a textbook. But still extremely helpful to anyone in design, layout, sales, marketing, or more.
McCandless is brilliant and has a talent for presenting huge amounts of data in an extremely aesthetic and accessible fashion. It's truly an art form. I love the various data he presents and love his sense of humor as well.
This book is essential for anyone who wants to be able to effectively present large amounts of inform More...
McCandless is brilliant and has a talent for presenting huge amounts of data in an extremely aesthetic and accessible fashion. It's truly an art form. I love the various data he presents and love his sense of humor as well.
This book is essential for anyone who wants to be able to effectively present large amounts of inform More...
Aug 13, 2010
Wayne
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A word cloud is NOT an adequate visualization.
Many of these were convoluted visuals or based on wacky sources, attempting to provide a quick visual overview to "data". Some were quite well done -- the majority were failures in making sense of data.
Many of these were convoluted visuals or based on wacky sources, attempting to provide a quick visual overview to "data". Some were quite well done -- the majority were failures in making sense of data.
Dec 14, 2009
Turi
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What an amazing book. A collection of trivia statistics, all arranged in visually arresting charts and diagrams. The experience of reading it was only marred by printing errors that left some vital info off of a few pages, but the errata is available at the author's web site.
Apr 02, 2011
Kate
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This book is a little all over the place. Some of the infographics I loved - they showed me something new about information design and about their content. Others I really didn't know why you'd even bother to infograph the data. Good one to check out from the library or borrow from a friend.
Aug 29, 2010
Rebecca
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Should have been a short story version -- a few graphics were quite well done, but most left something to be desired (hard to interpret, no key, false information, opinion, etc).
Jul 28, 2010
I've been reading through this, but will have to return it back to the library before i move. I might have to get my own copy, it's like the internet put in book form.
Apr 16, 2010
Jessietaylortanner
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Interesting to look through the various tables, graphs and the like, if even for the visuals and not the information. I'm not sure how informative it actually was, based on the sources of information. A fun flip-through.
Jan 08, 2011
Benjamin
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Nice graphs, but suffers from the same problem of other divulgative publications: you want to put everywhere: {{ref}}, {{citation-needed}}, or {{sources}}
Feb 02, 2010
Dana
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A dead-paper collection of a bunch of the graphics from informationisbeautiful.net
In a lot of ways, it's just a big picture book. But the pictures are data presented in creative and visually interesting (and useful ways). Really makes me wish I had a lot of information I wanted to show people, as well as skills at Photoshop and Indesign :P
I really enjoyed it and will probably thumb through it now and again for a long time to come, but being a picture book I was basicall More...
In a lot of ways, it's just a big picture book. But the pictures are data presented in creative and visually interesting (and useful ways). Really makes me wish I had a lot of information I wanted to show people, as well as skills at Photoshop and Indesign :P
I really enjoyed it and will probably thumb through it now and again for a long time to come, but being a picture book I was basicall More...
May 15, 2011
Alyson
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There are a few good charts / datavis renderings in here, but the book is overloaded with junk charts. A very frustrating book to flip through.
Nov 03, 2011
Lisa
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(Non-Fiction, Information Graphics) This book is full of aethestically appealing graphs of trivia information. A great coffee table book.
Mar 09, 2011
adjua
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great intro. a bit candy-coated for my current tastes. will revisit after some beefier reads to see what more i can glean.
Sep 14, 2010
Marsha
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This books takes information that might take several pages to explain and distills them down to one or two page charts, graphs, illustrations or other visual representations in a fun and concise manner.
Colorful and imaginative with references to source material, it is less than an almanac but more than a book of trivia. A feast for the eyes and mind! .
Colorful and imaginative with references to source material, it is less than an almanac but more than a book of trivia. A feast for the eyes and mind! .
Aug 11, 2010
Amanda
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Who knew that data could be like art? Visually appealing and thoughtful. Proving once again that you can make data say anything.
Jul 23, 2010
Bevans
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This book has many inventive and interesting examples of great ways to design information for greater comprehension and engagement. Unfortunately, there are several very major printing errors, but the author has made those pages available on his web site.
Sep 26, 2011
Carolanne
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Brain candy floss.
This book has several mistakes and typos. Some of the graphs are very beautiful and clever.
This book has several mistakes and typos. Some of the graphs are very beautiful and clever.
Apr 22, 2011
Jennifer
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Treasure trove of inspiration.
A candy jar for anyone who loves infographics and beautifully presented data.
A candy jar for anyone who loves infographics and beautifully presented data.
Dec 25, 2010
Georg
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diverse collection of infographics, some interesting and well done, others rather distorted and useless
Dec 08, 2010
Craig
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Really worth reading! An amazing view of the world and great source of data design inspiration.
