Popular Books on Statistics

(and related subjects)

Compiled by Terry Morse

“Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write.” – H.G. Wells (1866-1946)

Last modified: 10 August 2011

Conned Again, Watson: cautionary tales of logic, math, and probability, by Colin Bruce. NY: Basic Books, 2001. [Non-technical. How logic, math, and probability theory apply to everyday life, non-threateningly presented as Sherlock Holmes mysteries.]

How to Lie With Charts, by Gerald E. Jones. iUniverse, 2000.

How to Lie with Maps, 2nd ed., by Mark Monmonier. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996.

How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff. NY: Norton, 1993. [The classic book on the subject]

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, by John Allen Paulos. NY: Basic Books, 1995.

Sense and Nonsense of Statistical Inference : controversy, misuse, and subtlety, by Chamont Wang. NY : Marcel Dekker, 1993. [More technical than the others]

Studies Show : a popular guide to understanding scientific studies, by John H. Fennick. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997.