Cartoon Guide to Statistics

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics covers all the central ideas of modern statistics: the summary and display of data, probability in gambling and medicine, random variables, Bernoulli Trails, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence interval estimation, and much more--all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant!

Indeed, although Gonick presents the details via cartoons, that does not change the fact that "Sigma" is still "Sigma", and if you don't understand exactly what "Sigma" represents before moving on to the next concept, then you will not understand the subsequent lessons.

ie. Just because cartoons tell the tale, it doesn't mean that you will breeze through this book as you might a comic book. The individual concepts must be read and reread and perhaps even contemplated in order to truly understand each one before moving on to the next concept. If you do not do this, then, of course, nothing will make sense.

This is a book of statistics, not miracles...thus work will still be necessary in order to absorb the basic concepts within it.

Nevertheless, this book is far clearer and much more fun to read than any other stat book I've opened before. Very highly recommended.


GREAT BOOK (covers probability theory painlessly & well)   April 28, 1999
91 out of 95 found this review helpful

Probability theory (uncertainty, error estimates, confidence intervals, "p-values" and the like) take time to understand, and rigorous approaches fail to get the concepts across to the non-mathemetician.

Gonick & Woolcott's Cartoon Guide to Statistics gets the ideas across with a minimum of math, and a maximum of "common sense" & (dare I say it?) intuition. The reader get's a FEEL for Probability and Statistics without violating the rigorous underpinnings of statistical theory.

I've taught Statistics to undergrad and grad students, and have had to teach into stats to Grad Students in 7 week Summer short courses, and I required everybody to buy exactly the same statistics calculator (one of the TI models with a couple chapters devoted to the mechanics of "doing statistics"), Cliff Notes _Statistics_, Darryl Huff's _How_to_Lie_With_Statistics_ (a classic cartoon guide I read decades ago) and Gonick's _Cartoon_Guide_to_Statistics_.

The 4 paperbacks (including the book that comes with the TI calculator) complement each other very well.

If you want to learn Statistics, without the standard Sadistics, I recommend Cliff, Huff, T.I. & Gonick. Enjoy!


A great icebreaker to an often cold subject   January 4, 2000
J. Verkuilen (New York, NY United States)
24 out of 26 found this review helpful

Statistics is a very difficult subject both to learn and teach. I wish I'd discovered this book after I'd been through the first formal class--except it wasn't written then. :) Well anyway, the CGtS is a useful book and I've recommended it to many people, all of whom got a fair amount of mileage from it. You certainly need further references, but the examples are lucid and the silly cartoons help keep people from getting too overwhelmed by seriousness. I also like the fact that the authors go through some of the history of statistics, as the subject is much more comprehensible if you know why people did what they did.

Someone mentioned getting SPSS--this is, IMO, a terrible way to learn the topic. Packages should come AFTER understanding, not the other way around. If you want a computer program to help out, use a spreadsheet.


Not to deep, not too shallow, and excellent introduction   November 8, 2006
Daniel Waisberg (Israel)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Larry Gonick was very successful in describing statistical terms in a funny and accessible way. The book covers a wide range of topics, and it gives all the background necessary to understand most statistical concepts.

When I read it, I already had a basic knowledge of statistics, but it did not make the book boring to me. The way Gonick presents the subjects is a good revision, and it brought a few smiles to my face.


the best stats primer   February 4, 2002
Michael Rossander (Westlake, OH USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This is one of the best texts for Probability and Statistics that I've ever read (and I've read more than my share). With a light tone and clever illustrations, Gonick & Smith cover about two semesters worth of material. They stop just after introducing regression analysis (which is a pity because I didn't really understand statistics until I learned and used regressions).

I wish I'd found this book back when I was still in school. I would have done much better in my statistics classes.