Rating: 
Summary: Overhyped garbage with very little useful information
Review: Tufte is the authority on graphs and the visual display of information. I read rave after rave about this guy on different websites. He taught at Yale and all that. Well, his books is the pits and is virtually worthless. Dont waste your time on this garbage. If you have any common sense, its more valuable than anything you'll read in this book. The only point I learned from this book is that Ivy league degrees don't guarantee quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth its weight in gold.
Review: I was genuinely impressed by both the quality and richness of this and Edward Tufte's two subsequent books (Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations). Together, these three beautifully presented volumes are by far the best discussion of graphical design principles that I have come across to date. Tufte presents potent examples that graphical integrity and clarity need not result in oversimplistic charts, graphs and displays. This is not a "how-to" book, but an intelligent and thought provoking analysis of opportunities in displaying and explaining data and events.
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Summary: Absolutely superb, lucid, educative feel good book
Review: It is difficult to find different words for each of the three books in the serious. They all share the same kind of quality and the different aspects are minor points. They are all three outstanding. The only problem they have, how can we mere mortals live up to it or even come only close.
Rating:
Summary: a great book for aficionados of this stuff
Review: well, it is an esoteric topic, to say the least.
But, this is the "Classic Work" in the field of presenting data, so if that is your thing, you should have this book
Rating:
Summary: Everything is perfect in this book, including paper quality.
Review: We offered this book to friends who share with us the artistic beauty of scientific drawing. Like for software programming, we believe in aesthetics beauty in scientific work. This book demonstrates it with simplicity and efficiency.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, read more
Review: Simply Enjoyable, and not within the Context of a book on Graphical Statistical Analysis(This is a great Work at any scale). Being a Software Engineer and looking to brush up on my data presentation skills, I seached by dumb luck and found this book. When the book arrived, I was not as excited as I am after having read it because at first glance it did not appear as though there was much going on in terms of the here and now. But as I began to read, I was amazed by the vivid history and development of methodologies. The book is facinating and enjoyable, well written and easily understood.
I luckily found Mr. Tufte and will be reading other works in his collection.
Rating:
Summary: 1st edition compared to 2nd
Review: Years ago, I purchased the first edition of VISUAL DISPLAY OF QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION. The second edition provides high-resolution color reproductions of the several graphics found in the first edition. In addition, corrections were made. However, to most readers/users, I doubt that the changes would be worthy of purchasing the second edition if one already owns the first edition.Edward R. Tufte is a noteworthy scholar and the presentation of the material presented in this book is awe-inspiring. Tufte has also compiled two other books that can be best described as quite remarkable. These additional books are entitled, ENVISIONING INFORMATION and VISUAL EXPLANATIONS. All three of these volumes are not merely supplemental textbooks; they are works of art. My intent was to use VISUAL DISPLAY OF QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION as part of teaching my statistics course. Students, but mostly faculty, are overly impressed with inferential statistics. Graphics play an important role in the understanding and interpretation of statistical findings. Tufte makes this point unambiguously clear in his books. Two features of VISUAL DISPLAY OF QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION are particularly salient in teaching a statistics course. First, the concept of normal distribution is wonderfully illustrated on page 140. Here the reader is reinforced with the notion that in the normal course of human events, cultural/social/behavioral/ psychological phenomena usually fall into the shape of a normal distribution. The constant appearance of this distribution borders on miraculous. Just as importantly, it is the basis for accurate predications in all areas of science. Tufte's illustration (page 140) speaks to this issue much more clearly than a one-hour lecture on the importance of the normal distribution. Which goes to show -- once again -- "a picture is worth a thousand words." Sadly, the illustration on page 140 is small and in black and white. I wish the second edition included a larger reproduction of this photo. A color presentation would have been helpful. Second, Tufte continues his unrelenting pattern to reinforce the importance and impact of illustrations in understanding complex concepts. In particular, page 176 demonstrates the impact of Napoleon's march to Moscow. The illustration is both profound and eerie. The reader is left with a feeling of death and pain for the foot soldiers...
Rating:
Summary: Superbly thought provoking
Review: I divide my graphics work into two categories: BT (Before Tufte) and AT (After Tufte). I rarely acknowledge any involvement of a publication from those dark BT days. Tufte's masterful and dead-on takes about how to communicate statistical and quantitative data challenges standard assumptions about developing graphical information and reveals, though it is not his stated intention, the weakness of so many graphics software packages. Just look at his collection of chartjunk and "ducks" (his term for hideous graphics) to see how all the whistles and bells available to us via computer graphics programs actually obfuscate the interpretation of visual information. By the time you read how much ink and paper are wasted by created bad graphics, you should be a convert. And if you are ever lucky enough to have the chance to attend one of Tufte's seminars, pawn your PC if that's what it takes.
Rating:
Summary: Different from my usual tastes
Review: Unlike many books I've read, this book is worth owning as a reference. In many ways, Tufte strikes a masterful balance between detail and abstraction. Furthermore I was staggered by Tufte's breadth of subject. With case studies as varied as a cholera outbreak, a Challenger explosion, and computer simulation of a thunderstorm, there's something for everyone. In a nutshell, the book was worth reading for a single (now obvious) concept--by emphasizing everything, you emphasize nothing.
Rating:
Summary: It Will Change Your Thinking
Review: Are you put to sleep by briefings on a regular basis? Do they become more colorful and simplified as the intended audience rises in your company hirearchy? Do you feel that you are being talked down to by a lot of fluff that could be condensed by a factor of say, a million? If your answers are "yes," but you cannot provide a good alternative, then this is the book for you. It changes the way you look at data. Through numerous examples, Tufte demonstrates how to rearrange and simplify tabulated lists, schedules, graphs, diagrams and maps in a way that elegantly reveals otherwise hidden relationships and patterns. I have applied his techniques to my own briefings as well as to vacation itineraries, meeting notes, and to do lists. But be forewarned. I have touted this book to my peers and managers and of the four people who have read the book none have had the epiphany I experienced. This book may be only for those who are fed up enough to change.
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