Beautiful Evidence by Edward R. Tufte Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Beautiful Evidence
Book Review: Beautiful Printing -- No Fresh Content
Summary: 1 Stars
Edward Tufte comes with a big attitude. Fourth edition of the same stinking book (pretty but stinky).
Wait a minute... Is he using irony on us? Write a pretty book with zero new ideas and insert a 30 page PowerPoint rant at the end. Was that some kind of inside joke? Comparing PowerPoint to Stalin? Oh yes!! HA HA, belly laugh! Now I get it. You are a sly old dog.
Book Review: Beautiful, but ... read Visual Display first and know what you are buying
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is beautiful to look at. I think even the strongest critics would agree. For the record, I am glad I own this book.
The question regards practicality and truth in advertising. The author certainly does not deliberately mislead, but many readers of his books (or those who know his reputation), will be expecting a book focusing primarily on the display of data in graphics. Fully two thirds of the book addresses that topic. However, many readers will be surprised to find discussions of dance notation, Albrecht Durer, and Matisse. Even more surprising is the final chapter on sculpture featuring the work of the author. Some will find this bordering on the self-indulgent. Also, many of the visualizations, while stunning, are hand drawn. The discussion of Galileo in particular is striking and thought provoking. However, if you are looking for ways to improve your presentations of data using your PC or Mac, you must make a leap of faith that the insights that you gain will produce practical results by changing your thinking.
Having said that, I enjoyed many of the sections on art, design, and cartography regardless of their immediate applicability to my data visualization work as a data miner and statistics consultant. Perhaps it is because I am a lover of maps and art books. Is that what you expect this book's appeal to be? I found it rich in content, but a critic might describe it as a "coffee table book".
In regards the accurate display of data in graphical form, two discussions standout: the brilliant chapter on powerpoint (also found as The Cognitive Style of Power Point) and the chapter on "sparklines". According to an NY Times interview with the author "sparklines" gets as many google hits as Andy Warhol. Given its popularity on google, one might consider the following strategy: buy The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition, buy the paperback on powerpoint, google "sparklines", and visit the author's site. If you find the work fascinating, attend one of the author's lectures (I did), and/or get all the books.
Book Review: Beautifully done
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fitting companion to Tufte's three earlier books on presenting. Like the others, its construction is strong and physically beautiful. Its clear layout pervasively demonstrates its points about organization of visual data. In a few places, an image crosses the fold in the two-page spread; images bleed back to the binding, so the centermost part of the image is sometimes hard to read. That's my only criticism - please note how small a criticism it is.
Tufte uses this book to convey one large message: unite your text and imagery. They are a whole, and separating them damages the whole of your presentation. Trying to repair that damage causes even more problems - inept cross-referencing, erratic jumping between different parts of a book, and other bumbling stitchery that tries to repair the rent text.
Tufte offers many specific examples and suggestions for presenting the unified image. Since his writing demonstrates the density of information he proposes, and since it is too heavily visual for the review of this text to capture, I must direct you to the book itself to see what it's really about. The only section that I couldn't understand as part of a unified whole was the last chapter. Although its discussion of statuary and its pedestal relates clearly to Tufte's despised "chartjunk," his portfolio of his own large-scale sculpture seemed gratuitous - enjoyable, perhaps, but tangential and self-indulgent. That doesn't weaken any of his points, though. If you present complex ideas, you must have this book.
//wiredweird
Book Review: Beauty Will Save the World
Summary: 5 Stars
Maurice Cornelius Escher was apparently wildly popular with mathematicians despite a total lack of any formal mathematical training. The examples that Edward Tufte uses to illustrate principals of visual excellence have that same intuitive appeal: it's clear they are both gorgeous and utilitarian even if the reasons why are not fully understood. Each of the 7 substantive chapters of "Beautiful Evidence" contains a range of delicious samples on a particular idea. My personal favorite is "sparklines", "intense, simple, word-sized graphics" that should be seamlessly incorporated into text. (Emoticons are a sort of sparkline.)
"Beauty will save the world" I recently saw emblazoned on a coffee house painting. Edward Tufte will teach us how. :)
Book Review: Disappointed as well
Summary: 3 Stars
I was going to write a full review but the review above titled 'a disappointment" by Dan Farmer echoed my thoughts exactly. The clincher was when I saw the graphic "guide for visitors to Ise shrine" which was used so effectively in Envisioning Information. I'd like to see new material in a $50 book, even if the rationalization is that it is used in a different context.
I'm a big fan, and have used Envisioning Information as a teaching text, but this volume, although full of great images and interesting insights isn't in the same league.