I read this book on the bus to and from visiting my dad in hospital this week. That said, I can't remember much of of it so there is no way I'm going to write any kind of review. No, I'm not going to re-read it. I think I'll just move on and maybe read something funny and light as I appear to be a touch distracted.

A worthy sequel to "Damned Lies and Statistics" in much the same vein.

The book has some significant flaws, however. The statement that there is no pro-bullying lobby is actually false; some of the more conservative politicians these days have stated pretty clearly that bullying is the kind of treatment queer kids deserve. There is a really awkward and unhelpful bit about percentages that should have been improved or omitted.

The book's strengths are the excellent writing and organization, particularly the way different kinds of statistics are broken down into missing numbers (relevant numbers that are simply overlooked in the discussion, sometimes because nobody likes them, sometimes because they are historical and forgotten), confusing numbers (more or less reliable numbers that are presented in misleading ways through arithmetical or graphical tricks or errors), scary numbers (numbers which are meant to alarm and motivate or intimidate), authoritative numbers (numbers from unusually reliable sources that may yet be misinterpreted), magical numbers (numbers on which important decisions rest that are amenable to manipulation) and contentious numbers (numbers that pop up in the course of a stats war, usually arising where there is little strong consensus on mechanisms, so that all arguments rest on statistical correlation or lack of it).

There is an afterword w/ more resources. The resources seem to be of variable quality; Numberwatch appears to be a mere hobby-horse for some pompous old professor, but StatLit looks kind of useful. ( )

A fine companion to innumeracy, this addresses statistical literacy; not the formulas, but the decisions underlying the collection and presentation of data

Best continues the quality of Damned Lies and Statistics in this unplanned followup, which he created at the behest of his editor, drawing on numerous examples reported to him by fans of the original book. Best tackles numbers and how we think of them, and brings up the importance of statistical literacy for the electorate. ( )