This book was referred to me by my Professor at MICA for my PGC in Marketing Analyst. It is a very comprehensive book on marketing research and data analysis which has indepth explanation of various data mining and analysis techniques.

The book is not a step by step tutorial on any particular software for SAS / SPSS, as in it would not give you steps to run the analysis but it is more detailed on the actual analysis aspect. The thing you would do after you run the analysis and see the output in front of you. How would you interpret it. And I believe that is the most important part irrespective of the tool you are using.

I would not know if the book would be an easy read for someone who wants to learn analytics on his own. But is the MOST important read. So if you are comfortable with using SAS, SPSS, R or any other data analysis tool then this book will help you by understanding the output of the analysis and getting insights from the analysis you have run.