A visual guide to the way the world really works Every day, every hour, every minute we are bombarded by information - from television, from newspapers, from the internet, we're steeped in it, maybe even lost in it. We need a new way to relate to it, to discover the beauty and the fun of information for information's sake. No dry facts, theories or statistics. Instead, Information is Beautiful contains visually stunning displays of information that blend the facts with their connections, their context and their relationships - making information meaningful, entertaining and beautiful. This is information like you have never seen it before - keeping text to a minimum and using unique visuals that offer a blueprint of modern life - a map of beautiful colour illustrations that are tactile to hold and easy to flick through but intriguing and engaging enough to study for hours.
Information is Beautiful
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Book Description
ISBN 9780007294664 was first published in 2009 and the reprint was published in 2010, hence the the original publish date will be mentioned on the book.
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"Information is Beautiful" is a wonderful present for anybody from 6 years to 96. I can't stop reading it. A lot of information is funny, all of it interesting, some of it even quite useful, so no house should be without one.
--Stoker Devonshire (12th Duke of Devonshire)
--Stoker Devonshire (12th Duke of Devonshire)
From the Publisher
We are on the third reprint and all copies now available are free from printing errors.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
93 of 96 people found the following review helpful
By Robin Hilton
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I wanted this book from the day I read about it, but waited until the printing errors were sorted out. Amazon haven't really highlighted the publishers note that says this is now on to the third reprint, and is therefore error free. So I now have a copy. And it was worth the 6 month wait.
This really is beautiful. The way some of the figures are presented is brilliantly original, and really fires the imagination for how information could be better presented. And I was surprised at some practical pages as well - eg salad dressing recipes, with quantities represented visually.
This is one of those books that will sit in the book case and be dipped into every now and again for inspiration. Enjoy it.
This really is beautiful. The way some of the figures are presented is brilliantly original, and really fires the imagination for how information could be better presented. And I was surprised at some practical pages as well - eg salad dressing recipes, with quantities represented visually.
This is one of those books that will sit in the book case and be dipped into every now and again for inspiration. Enjoy it.
97 of 104 people found the following review helpful
By J. Dawson
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Author David McCandless deserves full marks for concept, design, and content of this book. It is indeed a beautiful and endlessly fascinating book that presents all sort of information from the profound to the trivial in a highly accessible way. It is the sort of thing that is ideal to dip into at random and know you are bound to come away with some new bit of knowledge, and I have no doubt our copy will end up very well-thumbed indeed.
So why the low marks? Those are for the publishers alone. A substantial number of the graphics here are missing the text that turns them from an abstract image into information. Some graphics seem to disappear off the edge of the page, others have a title but no legend to help decipher the image, graphs may show a legend for only one axis and leave the reader to guess the other. Frustratingly, the author's own website reveals that these errors were noticed in the American edition and he attempted to correct them before the British edition was printed, however the publishers opted to just publish the same book, errors and all.
This should be a stunning book with broad appeal, however in its present state I cannot honestly recommend paying for a copy.
So why the low marks? Those are for the publishers alone. A substantial number of the graphics here are missing the text that turns them from an abstract image into information. Some graphics seem to disappear off the edge of the page, others have a title but no legend to help decipher the image, graphs may show a legend for only one axis and leave the reader to guess the other. Frustratingly, the author's own website reveals that these errors were noticed in the American edition and he attempted to correct them before the British edition was printed, however the publishers opted to just publish the same book, errors and all.
This should be a stunning book with broad appeal, however in its present state I cannot honestly recommend paying for a copy.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Information is Beautiful is a great book. The vast array of visualisation techniques is mind blowing, from the simple, yet wonderfully created pie chart to a number of techniques (e.g. semantic polar grids) that I had never encountered before (and I have a PhD in ecological statistics). I would recommend this to anyone interested in data visualisation / infographics who wants inspiration or wants a nice looking book that would not be out of place on any self-confessed geeks coffee table.
The fact that the book is now on its third reprint, shows how immensely popular it has been. This has also allowed for the correction of the original printing errors (publishers fault). If however you do have an early copy you can still download the correct pages direct from David's website "Information is Beautiful". A website that is constructed with the same amount of care and attention that is shown in this text and should be immediately addded to your RSS subscriptions.
Now that this text is under £10 makes this an instant purchase for any intersted party or even as a gift item. Enjoy being immersed in the beautiful display of normally impenetrable data.
The fact that the book is now on its third reprint, shows how immensely popular it has been. This has also allowed for the correction of the original printing errors (publishers fault). If however you do have an early copy you can still download the correct pages direct from David's website "Information is Beautiful". A website that is constructed with the same amount of care and attention that is shown in this text and should be immediately addded to your RSS subscriptions.
Now that this text is under £10 makes this an instant purchase for any intersted party or even as a gift item. Enjoy being immersed in the beautiful display of normally impenetrable data.
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
That there are printing mistakes in this book is a crying shame. For a book that will rise or fall on the veracity of its data, to have twelve pages with the data missing is more than unfortunate. That this UK addition has the same mistakes as an earlier American edition, seems like commercial suicide. What were Collins thinking? I feel for David McCandless, as this book has clearly been a labour of love.
That said, 'Information is Beautiful' is a brilliant book. If the twelve messed up pages were completely absent, it would still be a brilliant book. So even though you feel like you are being cheated, you're not. The other 244 pages are a feast for the eyes, and are well worth parting you from your cash. The US version is in its second edition, so if you want it to be perfect, maybe you could wait for the same over here? (There is an downloadable errata on 'IiB' website)
February strikes me as an odd date for the release of this book. It's exactly the sort of thing you would expect to see on the shelves in the run up to Christmas. It's Schott's Almanac on acid, made to appeal to the reader's inner geek. McCandless' mission is to take the assault of information that comes with living in the technological age, and represent it in a way that is easy to understand: Visually. He does so with aplomb - there are hundreds of facts in here, all in glorious technicolor.
There are graphs, pie charts and flow charts, fairly ordinary ways of displaying information, but there are also bubble clusters, Coxcombs and the delightfully named 'semantic polar grids', which are like candy for nerds. There is even a page displaying visual ways of displaying information. Subjects range from Creation Myths to Salad Dressings, via The Middle East. It's wonderful!... Read more ›
That said, 'Information is Beautiful' is a brilliant book. If the twelve messed up pages were completely absent, it would still be a brilliant book. So even though you feel like you are being cheated, you're not. The other 244 pages are a feast for the eyes, and are well worth parting you from your cash. The US version is in its second edition, so if you want it to be perfect, maybe you could wait for the same over here? (There is an downloadable errata on 'IiB' website)
February strikes me as an odd date for the release of this book. It's exactly the sort of thing you would expect to see on the shelves in the run up to Christmas. It's Schott's Almanac on acid, made to appeal to the reader's inner geek. McCandless' mission is to take the assault of information that comes with living in the technological age, and represent it in a way that is easy to understand: Visually. He does so with aplomb - there are hundreds of facts in here, all in glorious technicolor.
There are graphs, pie charts and flow charts, fairly ordinary ways of displaying information, but there are also bubble clusters, Coxcombs and the delightfully named 'semantic polar grids', which are like candy for nerds. There is even a page displaying visual ways of displaying information. Subjects range from Creation Myths to Salad Dressings, via The Middle East. It's wonderful!... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Page 128 of this book is devoted to the different types of graphics used in diagrams, forty are named with a little graphic of each (pie chart; bar chart; word cloud etc and one called 'Dunno what to call it' chart) and I thought it would have been useful to run this page at the front of the book so that readers could try and identify what type of graphic was used on each page.
The editorial is an interesting one and gets away from the Tufte format of reproducing existing material by creating all the graphics for this book and maybe this is one of its weaknesses. I found so many of these graphic pages just too unwieldy and confusing, sort of the opposite of what this type of material is supposed to do: visually present information with clarity and simplicity. Plenty of pages have data that has been crowbarred into something visual that really should have remained just as typed list.
Shame about the missing text that everyone has mentioned. More importantly to me (and a real editorial weakness) is the large amount of unreadable type, either white out of a black page, light colored panels or just too tiny. Heavy use of Batteries Not Included Bold Condensed and Prices Subject To Change Without Notice Roman do not encourage clarity. It means I just turn over the page to the next diagram.
There are some fascinating visual ideas here but because they were not created for anything other than this book they lack the creative rigor that would normally be required if they were to be used in print elsewhere.
The editorial is an interesting one and gets away from the Tufte format of reproducing existing material by creating all the graphics for this book and maybe this is one of its weaknesses. I found so many of these graphic pages just too unwieldy and confusing, sort of the opposite of what this type of material is supposed to do: visually present information with clarity and simplicity. Plenty of pages have data that has been crowbarred into something visual that really should have remained just as typed list.
Shame about the missing text that everyone has mentioned. More importantly to me (and a real editorial weakness) is the large amount of unreadable type, either white out of a black page, light colored panels or just too tiny. Heavy use of Batteries Not Included Bold Condensed and Prices Subject To Change Without Notice Roman do not encourage clarity. It means I just turn over the page to the next diagram.
There are some fascinating visual ideas here but because they were not created for anything other than this book they lack the creative rigor that would normally be required if they were to be used in print elsewhere.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful book
that has helped me in my presentations and in certainly contributed to a successful interview and a promotion. thank you. I'd love a new one as I think ideas have moved on!
Published 1 day ago by Sara
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Bought this for Father's Day and am sensing it will be a hit! Very interesting; any attempt to flick through quickly will result in a lost ten minutes as you get involved in the... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Ms. A. Lucey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book!
A fascinating selection of topics presented in a variety of unusual ways. I find the visual format makes the details stick in my mind in a way that plain text just doesn't. Read more
Published 21 days ago by GlowingCactus
5.0 out of 5 stars
My most used reference book
I saw David McCandless speak at a conference some time ago and was inspired immediately to go and buy the book the next day. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Sunshine
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
Excellent read, covering loads of topics, really useful. Must buy for anyone interested in the world around them! Good Stuff
Published 22 days ago by Gareth
5.0 out of 5 stars
Information Really Is beautiful!
I bought this book on the spur of the moment, after briefly reviewing it at a friend's house. I thought it would be perfect for the "coffee" table at work. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Jason
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it!
I really love this book - it's great to look at both on a bookshelf and to read through. Really easy to dip in and out of. Read more
Published 29 days ago by lou
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiration!
As a Graphic Designer, this is a fine way to kick start ideas, very clever indeed.
Even the stuff thats almost impossible to decipher at least looks great, and figuring it out... Read more
Even the stuff thats almost impossible to decipher at least looks great, and figuring it out... Read more
Published 1 month ago by GR
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor Layout ruins the book
The layout of the book means that many of the diagrams are split over two pages and the division in the centre ruins the pictorial representation of the data. Read more
Published 1 month ago by K. C. Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read
As with all statistics, read with a pinch of salt and look to where the stats were obtained. However a must read, my life is better as a direct result of this book. Beautiful!
Published 2 months ago by Malibu Benn
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