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The Best American Infographics 2013 (2013)

by Gareth Cook(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0547973373 (ISBN13: 9780547973371)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Mariner Books

review 1: Oh, infographics. I have so many feelings about you. I think the internet is in love with you, for better and for worse, and I don't know when that will go away, if ever. This book really shows what I love and hate about infographics. The best ones, really, are not just beautifully designed, but also accurate, logical, meaningful, and revelatory of the facts in a way that prose and photographic images could not convey. The worst are mishmashes of facts, slickly produced to appear meaningful, but the deeper you go as a reader/viewer, the more confused you get. And even this book contains some of those. here are some in this book that work really well:"Should I Check My E-mail?" = classic funny flow-chart, just enough info, beautifully hand-drawn and colored."Fever Flow" = p... moreublic health problems are a natural for the infographic format and visualizing the epidemics is an actual public service."And the Oscar Goes to ... New York City"fun and simple visualization of the locales of all films that have won "Best Picture." Something I didn't even know I've always wondered about, simply visualized in a way that draws me in."Just How Fast is Bolt?"I remember seeing this visualization in the Times of all the fastest sprinters - every Olympic medalist since 1896, it absolutely made sense to see all these little figures put next to each other and made me understand racing in a new way. here are some that don't:"The Common Cook's How-Many Guide to Kitchen Conversions" = a great concept, looks beautiful, but is actually pretty difficult to navigate. There's got to be a better way to display that information."Sexism, Visualized" - The gender wage gap and so on is a super important topic and one I care about, but the way the data's visualized here is so confusing, and I'm left wishing I'd just read these facts in clear, well-cited prose."Your Microbiome" - fascinating, but hard to read. Honestly, I think the pie chart type diagrams really tend to try to cram way too much in and then be hard to peruse.I will say, though, that all of these infographics, mostly, have the benefit of lots of data, solid research, and good journalism behind them. Which is probably not true of most of the infographics you find out on Buzzfeed or whatnot.So, all this to say, caveat lector when it comes to infographics.
review 2: Received as an ARC from Houghton Mifflin.This collection of interesting infographics allows the casually intrigued to flip through in merely a couple of hours or the incredibly obsessed to spend days, weeks, months, or years analyzing the bits of data as they are artistically rendered. Gareth Cook piques the readers mind from the beginning with a fluid, yet detailed, offering of his favorites from the list, while David Byrne connects with the "list afficianado" within us all by categorizing the book into even more segments.What I found the most amazing was the wide swath of culture that was represented within the data schemes: from the number of mentions of NFL players on specific ESPN shows to the damage done by Hurricane Sandy. Most list or data books detail a particular category and offer rather shallow analysis, while this book spreads the wealth to engage a more disparate portion of the population and still delving deep into the cultural questions.I highly recommend this book to anybody looking to enjoy themselves and get lost in the beauty of information. less

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