The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia

The world of data and its visual representations makes up a larger part of newspapers, magazines, and TV. Here, information about a wide range of topics is presented. There are one and two page summaries about global warming, carbon intensity, charities, health, cancer, geography, entertainment/movies, art, religion, and other subjects. Lots of the information are topics most readers have a general understanding of but also are topics about which one may not recall specific numbers. A very good two page visual summary is for the carbon dioxide cycle (p. 102/103). Cancer risks are another topic represented by a graphic made out of words (p. 154/155). Historical matters, including 20th Century Death causes is visually powerful, and highly informative (p. 120/121). At the UN and at the National Academy of Sciences people are still estimating what types of government programs are most beneficial for promoting the quality of life, reducing poverty, and avoiding the loss of life. This utilitarian debate changes as technology advances, yet we may see very similar charts about 21st survival and demographics as in the 20th century, given current trends about water shortages, droughts, war, poverty, and drug use. US economics are on trend towards being 20% of world GDP (compared with today's US GDP at 25% of the world economy). American charities will experience new limits in life-saving and life-improving missions. The era of Chinese charities may be a new trend, or they could be taking a more mercantile and finance-oriented road, exchanging goods and services usually only in return for raw materials and land rights.

I bought this after watching a TedTalk by the author because I'm into data visualization (both professionally and for school). While this book has pretty graphics, and a bit of interest from a "what might graphs options look like beyond standard graphs" perspective, that's about it. On one page it just shows digital images of different types of facial hair that contain no other information except what dictators had it, years they were alive, and how many people killed. It would have been the exact same if they just had a picture of the person. Exact Same. Similarly, there is a page that has an icon for food, the name of the food item, and then below the icon is a number of calories. On one page is a bunch of colored circles that are supposed to represent the reasons for divorce - except none of the reasons are listed. Just a bunch of circles. So none of these really give me much "insightful" information.Some graphs show insightful information (like the Snake Oil one) that was highlighted in the author's tedtalk. Some are outdated as expected, but still give you ideas on the possibilities on how to display information. But that's only if you know what to call some of these graphs, because you aren't going to see them in any typical data visualization package. Or maybe some graphic designer put them together - that seems more likely. So yea - pretty book. From a practical "how to else you can display your data" perspective not particularly helpful.

I just got and have been skimming through. Some of the visual charts are more interesting to read than others. Some charts are also easier to read/interpret than others. However, there are plenty to choose from.Though says hardcover, the copy I have is actually a nice softcover. [Appears that Amazon has corrected this on the product page]I have found a couple pages that it looks like the writing didn't print properly on. Most of the pages 60-65 (may be 66) are missing writing. I haven't noticed outside these pages.Example of pg missing text:pg 64, Excuses Us: Reasons for DivorceThe page in my book is a collection of colored circles. Only writing besides title and reference is that purple indicates the top excuse for women and pink is the top excuse for men.If the text does appear in someone else's book, please comment. [I've heard from others that they are missing text on those pages from their copies also. Author has now put up a PDF with the missing pages. Password required (indicates it is a word from the book and where to find it).[...]]Overall, I am glad got the book. I'm looking forward to comments from friends and conversations that result from casual browsing.

If you like cool facts, fascinating statistics on myriad topics, trivia, and one-of-a-kind books, you should definitely check this out. This book is AMAZING. It is jammed full of interesting and colorful charts, graphs, info-graphics, and similar things. There are so many topics, and a lot of them are very interesting and relevant to everyday life and the things people like to talk about. The author hones in on the compelling data, not just junk facts. This is probably one of the best "fun" books I have ever purchased.One word of warning: There are a few graphs dealing with adult themes, and at least one of them contains info-graphic style depictions of sexual organs. I didn't see anything raunchy; but if you are sensitive you should take note. As a conservative Christian, I didn't feel that the contents would be inappropriate for a high school or college library; but it might earn a PG rating.There is so much to see and process in this book that I have not finished it yet. But the moment I took it out of the Amazon box, I could hardly put it down. Seriously, I stood there and perused the whole book on the spot.

I love this book. The first time I saw it in a bookstore, I had to buy it.It's so interesting that everyone who has come across the book in my house, liked it.I love it so much, that I am giving away 2 copies (from Amazon) for Christmas. Like my review title,this is an awesome book of its kind, but some pages needed to be more carefully edited.Still, a great coffee table book to read again and again.

This is a brilliant book but don't buy it if you have a copy of The Information is Beautiful as they are the same book. I discovered this after ordering both ! ! !

great visuals really makes you think

Eine beeindruckende Vielfalt völlig unterschiedlicher Themen mit teilweise witzigen Zusammenstellungen. Man darf bloß nicht den Fehler machen, nur darin zu blättern oder zu viel am Stück zu lesen. Ich würde 20 Minuten-Einheiten für ausreichend halten, sonst nutzt sich der aha-Effekt ab.Diese Ausgabe hat leider einige Macken: Die Heftung verhindert, dass sich das Buch vollständig aufblättern lässt, darauf hat aber das Layout bei bei doppelseitigen Darstellungen keine Rücksicht genommen (oder umgekehrt), wodurch einige Informationen unlesbar bleiben. Der Hochglanzdruck ist äußerst empfindlich gegen Berührungen. Wer also das Buch weitergeben möchte, sollte es besser nur mit Baumwollhandschuhen anfassen.

Hier wird mit einfachen grafischen Mitteln aufgezeigt, wie interessant das Erschliessen und auch das Darstellen von Informationen sein kann und das Wichtigste dabei: Die Macher verstehen ihr infografisches Handwerk! Ein Umstand der nicht zu unterschätzen ist, wo man heutzutage doch sehr viele Bücher zum Thema "Datenvisualisierung" finden kann die zum Teil unglaubliche Umsetzungsfehler beinhalten. Aber nicht nur die Grafiken sind hier toll umgesetzt, auch Inhaltlich überzeugt das Buch indem es manch spannende und überraschende Erkenntnis bereithält...

Schon beim durchblättern wird man mit geballtem Wissen und Informationen farblich beeindruckt. Dabei ist das ganze Übersichtlich und schlüssig aufgebaut. Auch nach Wochen macht es Spaß zwischen den Seiten immer neue Dinge zu entdecken. Gerade mein Designerherz wird davon immer wieder angesprochen. Ein Bilderbuch für Erwachsene aus dem man sowohl gestalterisch, wie auch technisch einiges lernen kann.