Rating: 
Summary: I'm a Cartoon Guide Addict now...
Review: Have you ever chuckled while reading your mathbook? Ever laughed out loud while crunching numbers? Don't worry--neither had I until I read this book. And any book that makes me smile when I'm doing math has got to be a winner.
Yes, Gonick has done it again. I bought the CG-genetics a while back, and loved it. So when I went hunting for a good 'refresher' stats book, I picked up this one.
I wasn't disappointed. Gonick (et al) has great talent for presenting information in a way that almost fools you into thinking you're not learning, but rather, having fun. And although this book wasn't as "easy" to get into as his Genetics book, I believe it's because I'm less familiar with this subject.
Careful though--as others have mentioned, you can't be fooled into thinking this book is THE way to learn statistics. You have to be pretty comfortable with algebra, and pretty determined to read through the book in order to take anything away from it. And don't try this book as a stand-alone or you'll end up with the same frustration you'd have with a college textbook.
Rating: 
Summary: Book Got Me Through College
Review: I am math phobic and taking Statistics in college made me wonder if I was one of those people who "wasn't cut-out for college". But I got this book and it made statistics fun and a lot less intimidating. After college, an interviewer asked me about Bayes Theorum and I immediately pictured the illustration from the book! Recently, while studying for the GMAT, I recalled the fun lessons from the book - especially probability and nailed that section of the test.
This would be great for High School or college students or ANYONE who is intimidated by math or stats.
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Summary: A better way to grasp the applications of statistics
Review: I disagree with the reviewer who thought the book was not useful for those without a grasp of basic statistics. Gonick presents the material in a comical, yet cogent manner designed specifically for those who might otherwise never grasp WHY and HOW they might use statistics.The truth is most college level statistics courses start with the development of a theory and only move to practical applications if there is time. Gonick presents a series of real-world problems and works backwards to the theory; a method I have seen work well in the business world. The book is not meant to be an exhaustive resource for graduate level statistics and analysis, but rather a better way for educated users to grasp the application of statistics to understandable problems. We used this book to help acclimate freshly minted graduates to statistical analysis in banking, financial services and marketing. Every person to whom we gave a copy was very pleased with the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for a refresher on Statistics
Review: I graduated with an Engineering Degree having taken three statistics classes in College, getting solid B's in each. Yet after being out of school for a while and needing to brush up, I picked up this book and found it very good at reminding me of the major concepts. Excellent book.
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Summary: Statistics and Fun
Review: I liked the book a lot. The cartoons accomplish exactly what they were meant to accomplish--to make the book an entertaining read and thus to facilitate the study of statistics. The characters of de Mere and the guy with a chronic math phobia are so funny that more than once I laughed out loud, looking at them. Difficult statistical concepts are not explained in great detail, so this book should be supplemented by a more conceptually-oriented book to help the beginner. But as a tool for review, this book is perfect for intermediate users.
Rating:
Summary: Best intro to stats around
Review: I read this book because I had to take a Linear Regression stats class, and I lacked the pre-requisite knowledge of basic statistics. After attempting to skim some of the 800 page intro books in the library, I decided to give this one a try. It contains everything you need to know about introductory statistics. Some things are a little unclear, but this stems from the fact that the author's did not want to burden the reader with the derivations of the basic equations. So at the expense of some clarity, they cut out a lot of junk that you will never need, probably even if your major is statistics. So even though you may need to supplement this book with a more detailed book, and even though the cartoons are far from funny, I give this book 5 stars because it is simply the best intro that you will find. You could easily get through an introductory college course with this book alone, and its a shame more courses don't try to do that.
Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: I took statistics in college. As soon as I was finished with the course I forgot everything about it as quickly as I could, figuring that I would never need that knowledge again. Well I was wrong.
This book is great.
First its the opposite of wordy. Most math books are far too wordy.
Second the concepts are presented in a clear manner with simple examples.
Third the cartoons are funny but don't detract from the learning.
I wish I had this book the first time I took statistics in college. Very nice as a refresher or to help students learn statistics the first time.
Bottom line if more math books looked like this people probably would not be so afraid of math. Many math textbooks are wordy and do not explain things well, and often go off on a rant on particular concept that the student misses the big picture of what they are tying to study. Well worth the money.
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Summary: nice coverage of topics for beginners
Review: I wrote a short review of this book previously for Amazon and my opinions have not changed very much. However, Gonick deserves credit for coauthoring his cartoon books with experts in the field. This way he avoids mistakes and brings out the important messages that, in the case of this book, a statistician would want to teach his students. Recently, I used the cartoons on p-values to help another statistician with a presentation on p-values for an audience of medical researchers. I found the relevant cartoons to be humorous and very instructive. Also, I discovered that in addition to the standard topics of estimation, hypothesis testing, regression, correlation and analysis of variance, Chapter 12, simply titled "Conclusion" has a brief description of many advanced topics, particularly in multivariate analysis. Multivariate topics include Chernoff faces, cluster analysis, factor analysis and discriminant analysis. Other advanced topics mentioned are random walks, time series analysis, image analysis and even resampling (bootstrap, jackknife and randomization). Each is described with a single cartoon. This reminds me to again warn that these cartoons alone cannot do justice to the various topics being taught. However, careful selection and placement into the context of a course can bring home important points to students better than just conventional teaching methods. I wouldn't hesitate to use this material to supplement and liven up an introductory statistics course. The bibliography at the end provides a number of very fine introductory texts and other topics and software that could interest the general public (also done in the cartoon fashion of Gonick).
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Summary: Beats the rest
Review: I'm smart with a pathetic mathematical background. This introduction to statistics is meant for people like me. The material is hard, but it's broken down into digestible portions, moves from easy to harder, and is explained carefully and thoroughly. My husband (smart with a great mathematical background) examined it and approved--he said nothing was left out or mis-explained. Plus, the cartoons really help comprehension and mood.
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Summary: Very funny and cute book. I love it!
Review: If you want to learn complicated things like statistics, but are feeling quite overwhelmed by the complexity, I highly recommend you learn visually from a book like this. Larry has a great sense of humor and is a creative genius. Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
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