Book reviews and my own books and ebooks
To tell you the truth, I don’t like the word “lie”: it feels obvious and unsophisticated. I prefer something like “reframing truth”, “alternative facts” or an English word I recently discovered, “paltering” (lying with the truth). Wanting to improve my skills in that area, I had great expectations about Alberto Cairo’s most recent book, How … Read more
There are three things I pay attention to when I see people making charts in Excel: #1: Aesthetics. We, Excel users and other mere mortals, aren’t artists or graphic designers, and although we should be aware of the role of aesthetics in our work, we can’t let aesthetics define it. We don’t have the right … Read more
A while ago I had this idea of asking Alberto Cairo to read the ebook I was planning to self-publish on my site. I asked Alberto because obviously he is one of the most respected experts in the datavis community as a whole but also because of practical reasons: the book was written in Portuguese … Read more
Here I am, starring at a blank page trying to find a title that maximizes sales captures the true essence of my book. I wish I could choose an arbitrary title like, say, Autumn in Peking or The Squadron’s Umbrella but, hélas!, some people wouldn’t find that funny enough. So, I need you to help … Read more
There is no one-size-fits-all datavis, but most books are written from a very generic or a graphic design perspective, Stephen Few’s books being one of the exceptions. So, I decided to write an unsexy entry level data visualization book for the illiterate and artistically challenged spreadsheet user (I also wanted to know if I could come … Read more
If you are a graphic designer you already know too much about beauty and aesthetics. If you want to play with data it’s time to grow up and learn some real graphs. I mean it. And I have the ideal book you: Creating More Effective Graphs, by Naomi B. Robbins. First Impressions Color: No color; … Read more
I’m writing an e-book, kind of “101 Data Visualization Questions You Were Afraid to Ask”, and I’d really appreciate your help. You just have to submit your data visualization question(s) using the contact form on the right (feel free to add additional suggestions or comments). The best 101 messages win a free copy of the … Read more
I just added to the sidebar an Amazon widget with some recommended reading. These are my personal favorites (regarding information display) and I do recommend them. I’m just starting, so you’ll find my choices pretty obvious. There is also a new custom search engine. It starts with around 160 sites covering charts, presentation, (business) information … Read more