I bought and read the books of Tufte and Cleveland (The elements of graphing data). Tufte is pushing things too far, there are certain expectation people have about what they want to see in a graph, but his analysis of the "lie factor" is great and it's a beautiful book. Clevelands book is becoming outdated; the use of colours is really helpful and other than two glued-in pages he does not mention it at all. The analysis is cristal clear and it's full of good and bad examples. Someone ought to rework it, it's invaluable to me.
The recommendation that Few makes in his book are worth buying it and you can read this book in a day, just skip the long explanations. Its indeed long and a somewhat simple, leaving the impression that the content is rather thin, but if anyone presenting data would stick to these simple rules, presentations would make a major step forward in clarity.
My conclusion:
- if you are a scientist, go for Cleveland.
- If have been a scientist and became a "manager" buy Few.
- If you are active in politics or other domains that communicate to the large public, Tufte will tell you how to tell the truth :-)
One more thing: pie charts are there to stay, no matter how hard we fight them and how many authors hate them and break them down with good arguments. One cannot turn back the clock, there is something like fashion in the way we present data.

I work in finance and create many charts and graphs. I figured a book like this would help me to design them better. I was really looking for a practical guide rather than a long, rambling academic textbook, but that's how this book reads.

It seems aimed at college underclassmen rather than business professionals. Few spends page after page discussing the most basic mathematical concepts and things that you simply don't need to know in order to create a graph. For example, there is an entire chapter on basic statistics such as how to calculate a mean, median and mode. There is also a lengthy discussion of how the human eye works.

As I went through the book I found myself thinking: "Wow, Few has so little to say about tables and graphs that he needs all of this filler material to make this seem like a real book!"

There are some valuable chapters at the end of the book, but it takes a lot of patience to get there.

The page format is also really annoying and too textbook-like. It is a really wide book with citations (90% of which seemed to be from Tufte) in the wide margins.

I give this review one star for the 15 or so pages worth of good advice it contains. Unfortunately that wasn't enough content to warrant an entire textbook If you're a business professional looking for something you can use, this book is VASTLY overpriced and oversized.

My final comment is on the cover: An eye. A Brain. A sun. Bars coming out of each. It says very little to me, and that seemed to be the theme of the book. I wish I'd have seen a real review on this book before I shelled out $30.

For someone like me, a programmer interested in creating better user interfaces, this is a really good book. I have no formal training in creating better visual displays, and this book has helped me understand decent graph layout. I've read the Tufte books, and while I really like them, they are often more qualitative than quantitative (no pun intended) in their descriptions. This book spells out how to make a good table based on the type of data, the number of fields being used, the relationship of the fields, etc. It's very hands on and very usable. My one complaint is I think he strays too far in to the cognitive aspect of how we see and understand data than he needs to given the focus of this book.

Have you ever witnessed a presenta-tion and seen charts that don't seem to ap-ply to anything in the world, much less the business at hand? You often recognize the ledgers, but no matter how many slick graphics and overlays the presenter shows, the results are mumbo-jumbo, guaranteed to put you asleep faster than a foreign film without subtitles. Stephen Few feels your pain. He understands that charts are designed to visually communicate greater concepts, and in Show Me the Numbers, he's made a science of effective visual data presentations.

As other reviewers have already noted, this is indeed an excellent book. Show Me the Numbers covers just about everything you need to know in order to present quantitative information in a clear and persuasive manner. Follow the author's advice and your graphs will tell a useful story, rather than merely list statistics; highlight significant trends, rather than obscure meaningful relationships.

I particularly liked the chapter on how visual perception influences a reader's ability to understand various types of graphic displays. The author clearly illustrates graphic techniques which work WITH our natural tendencies, and thus promote rapid comprehension of the underlying quantitative message. Learning about visual perception helped me more deeply understand and internalize the essence of good graphic design.

In summary, this is a tremendously practical book. The only bad thing about Show Me the Numbers, is that I now cringe nearly every time I see a graph - as I am painfully aware of how poorly designed most of them are. Do yourself a favor, buy a few extra copies of Show Me the Numbers and pass them around at work!