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The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia
"The Visual Miscellaneum" is a unique, groundbreaking look at the modern information age, helping readers make sense of the countless statistics and random facts that constantly bombard us. Using cutting edge graphs, charts, and illustrations, David McCandless creatively visualizes the world's surprising relationships and compelling data, covering everything from the most
...moreHardcover, 256 pages
Published
November 10th 2009
by Harper Design
(first published November 1st 2009)
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I usually don't use the star system unless I can give four or five stars, but in this case I am making an exception in order to counter-balance the trend I see in the data about this book. Scroll through the reviews and you will see that people who know how information visualization is supposed to be done are giving this book bad reviews and only one or two stars. The enthusiastic five-star reviews are coming from folks who simply enjoyed looking at the pictures in the book. Their enjoyment of w...more
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 worse...more
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primarily (if not totally) reprints from the blog, but the imgs are more compelling and effective in print form. while i don't think he actually violates any of tufte's principles, some of the size comparison imgs are a bit misleading or confusing. for example, there's a series of imgs in which he compares the amount of co2 created by things annually - like the amount released by opening cokes globally to one individual living a "western" lifestyle. the relative sizes of a of a coke bottle vs. a...more
First, I question most of the data sources. Some were stated clearly enough that I understood what biases might be inherent in them, but others I would have to look up online, and I'm too lazy when I have the book right here.
Second, it's nice to see information visualization from a different viewpoint than I normally approach it. My job is to display unknown data as accurately as possible, without guessing the user's purpose or pushing an agenda. This book approaches visualization as an art. The...more
Second, it's nice to see information visualization from a different viewpoint than I normally approach it. My job is to display unknown data as accurately as possible, without guessing the user's purpose or pushing an agenda. This book approaches visualization as an art. The...more
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 horrifying "Bee Limit Warning" (Why are they dis...more
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 copy in the dollar...more
If you are a trivia buff like I am there are numerous books better than this one unless you can find a copy in the dollar...more
Fun first and foremost, but really really shitty from an informational angle (sources: wikipedia.org, google.com, etc.) and probably from a graphic design angle as well (I don't know about much about this, but its neon colorscheme would probably make anyone sick after a while). It's a vapid, sugary, fun coffeetable book and that's about it on its own.
However, it does make you think about how things are presented and about the danger of "fun=friendly" advertising.
However, it does make you think about how things are presented and about the danger of "fun=friendly" advertising.
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 :)
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 political them...more
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
Nadif Bracey
added it
“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.
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?!
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.
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"
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 information to o...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 information to o...more
A wide-ranging visual exploration of multifarious information--from women's fashion colors to most edited Wikipedia pages to theories of the origin of the universe. I would actually give it 3 1/2 if I could. Not earth-shaking, but clearly presented and fun to browse through.
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.
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.
It was great, and full of interesting facts. If you study just about anything, this can be a reference book. From Anthropology to International Affairs to Psychology to Statistics to Biology. Its a Goodread, and very modern.
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.
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
David
marked it as to-read
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.
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.
Nice graphs, but suffers from the same problem of other divulgative publications: you want to put everywhere: {{ref}}, {{citation-needed}}, or {{sources}}
Feb 09, 2010
Hannah
marked it as to-read
How can I not want more from the man who produced this?
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 basically able to read the entire...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 basically able to read the entire...more
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.
(Non-Fiction, Information Graphics) This book is full of aethestically appealing graphs of trivia information. A great coffee table book.
great intro. a bit candy-coated for my current tastes. will revisit after some beefier reads to see what more i can glean.
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! .
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