Is this even a book worth blogging? It's a collection of infographics (obviously) reprinted on paper with only a paragraph or so of text on each page. But if we're going for 400 posts this year, well, I'd be remiss not to post this. I did, after all, just complete it.
I love good infographics. I think most people on the Internet with some form of regularity feel the same way about them. There's just something so satisfying about seeing a point, or a series of points, being made in a clear cut way using a mixture of data - the statistics, numbers, measurements - and artistry. And this book is, naturally, chock full of good infographics. A few quick complaints, because otherwise I'd have nothing more to say here.
- Many - perhaps most - of these infographics were originally created to be displayed on computer screens; the center seam of the paperback book interrupted a few vital blurbs and pictures here and there, and while this was by no means an experience-ruiner, it defintiely detracted from a few of the infographics.
- Ditto on the text size. What is legible on a computer screen isn't always legible in print, especially in dynamic circumstances that allow for zooming.
- And, of course, interactive infographics just weren't the same at all. It's one thing to take cool static infographics and present them in a book, but to try and show three or four different screenshots of an interactive graphic? It doesn't work. I admire the inclusion of a few such graphs, but a still page simply isn't the right medium for the content.
Those three complaints aside, this was an enjoyable enough, um, "read." It is also only the twelfth and certainly the last book I will post in 2013. That's a book a month! Pathetic!
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