The Ultimate Eye Candy Book for Nerds: The Visual Miscellaneum (+ Giveaway!)

by Jenny • December 11th, 2009

VisualMiscLadies and gentleman: I present you with The Visual Miscellaneum – a book I want to cuddle with and keep forever.

My blog has actually gotten to the point where I have more publicists offering to send books than I have time to review, which for a book worm is pretty cool! But when I heard that David McCandless of InformationIsBeautiful.net had a book coming out – I emailed them asking if I could have a review copy. Even better? I asked for two extras to give away (more details below).

The Visual Miscellaneum is the ultimate eye candy book for nerds – 255 GORGEOUS shiny, colorful pages with the most incredible info-graphics I’ve ever seen. I know I’m gushing, but this book is AWESOME.

From The Visual Miscellaneum Press Release:

Every day we are bombarded with facts and statistics that quickly become meaningless sound bites amidst the cacophony of the Information Age. It occurred to David McCandless, an award-winning London-based writer and graphic designer, that the best way to absorb this barrage of random information is by visually “mapping” facts in colorful and quirky ways.

The result, The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia, is a volume like no other: a simultaneously lighthearted and thought-provoking sourcebook to things both serious and goofy.

For amusement and edification, The Visual Miscellaneum compares coffee and cocktail ingredients, online viral videos, the lethality of cosmetic components, and video game sales. If a picture is worth a thousand words, The Visual Miscellaneum is a veritable library of culture, philosophy, spirituality, ecology, society, technology, history, economics, and pop culture.

Want to win a copy? Leave a comment!

When I like something, I tell people about it. When I LOVE something, I praise and promote like nobody’s business. Because I think this coffee-table book makes the perfect gift and I know it’s exactly the type of thing my readers (you) would love, I asked the publicist if they’d send me two copies to give away. Lucky for us, they said yes! So leave me a comment about your nerdy love for infographics (or anything, really) and I’ll pick two winners using Random.org. Comments will close at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18.

Excerpts from the Book – Click image to enlarge in a new window:

Timeline of Global Media Scare Stories

Tons of Carbon Per Year

Women's Fashion "In" Colors by Year

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41 comments

Categories: Books, Fun

  • http://www.lifewithoutpants.com Matt Cheuvront

    So I pretty much love books and love free giveaways. I am building up my free giveaway book library to which I will start conquering in 2010. Looks like an awesome (and visually stimulating read – I'm in!)

  • http://positivelypresent.com positivelypresent

    Love this book — I just bought a copy about a week ago and I'm so excited to read this great review about it! :)

  • http://www.workinonaramp.com/ Jenny

    I think free books to review may be the best perk of blogging so far. Oh, and meeting tons of awesome people! That too! So I have this book on my “to buy” list. But I'm excited that this comment will make me eligible for a free copy. Fingers crossed that my free book streak continues with this one! Looks like a great read.

  • Marc KS

    Have you ever seen the Ted Talk with the guy using infographics? A must see for anyone interested in the stuff… the guy was beyond insightful!

    I'm actually almost more excited about the link than about potentially getting what looks to be an awesome book!

  • http://lachilenguita.blogspot.com/ Tyffanie

    Sounds and looks like a really cool book! I'd love a copy. I could then share random facts with people :) (I am terrible at that in general hahaha…maybe because I need a visual book like this!)

  • http://ryanstephensmarketing.com/blog/ ryanstephens

    I'm not sure this book would be suitable for my coffee table which currently features Men's Health, ESPN the Mag, and Maxim Magazine. I can't afford for people to realize I'm a dork – that would totally ruin the image I've so carefully crafted :)

  • http://www.adventuresinwaco.blogspot.com/ Kristi

    This looks like a great way to get in some fun and completely unecessary reading time this Christmas break! :)

  • http://cassandrajowett.squarespace.com cassandrajowett

    I love infographics because they help everyone — from the expert to the everyman — understand big, important information that's hard to communicate with words alone. And, as gorgeously designed, colourful examples like these show, they don't have to be plain black and white bar graphs. There's no limit to the number of ways information can be displayed — it just takes someone really creative to figure out “the best” way.

  • kristi_richey

    Wait….WAIT. You get books sent for you FREE because you blog??? Jenny, you should have told me about this long ago. This has just added flame to my fire for starting my blog. FREE BOOKS! I think I might die and go to heaven if I'm ever fortunate enough to get people to send me books for free because I blog. Seriously!

  • http://www.valeriemondesir.com/ Valerie M

    I'm totally a visual person… I remember being the only person in my high school class being able to identify all the European and Asian countries (and their capitals) from their shapes alone. So this book is right up my alley!

  • yajurjohri

    This seems to be quite an interesting and fun book, besides pictures > words in my world

  • alexmarcy

    That looks like and exciting book. I'll have to check it out even if I don't win a copy.

  • http://doniree.com doniree

    That's probably the prettiest thing I've ever seen! Want! :)

  • http://diamondkt.blogspot.com David

    Wait. You have love for infographics?

    You get nerdier and nerdier every day. The nerdyness never ends.

    It's hot.

  • http://digitalcritiques.wordpress.com/ Angela

    This book looks really interesting and would make a great xmas present… for myself! :)

  • http://www.opheliaswebb.com Elisa Doucette

    Information tidbit #1 – This is my 100th Disqus comment. Can we have cupcakes at our slumber party this weekend to celebrate?
    Information tidbit #2 – WTH! No one asks me to review books on my blog. When yours gets published can I get a copy to review?
    Information tidbit #3 – Umm…pretty pictures of charts and graphs to understand and analytically evaluate everyday life and phenomenon. This is one of the coolest books EVER! Is there a chart in there for dating and love? If someone could break that down into a bar graph or something for me I'd be eternally grateful. :)

  • http://exposingposies.blogspot.com/ Elena

    This sounds like a great book. Hope I win!

  • http://www.dropofchange.com CarlNelson

    I want those in high quality glossy! Even though I don't have a coffee table ;)

  • http://www.dropofchange.com CarlNelson

    Agreed, that Ted talk is awesome.

  • http://twitter.com/kristenbyers Kristen Byers

    I'd love a copy! Those infographics look gorgeous :)

  • jacquelinefigueroa

    Info-graphics are the best way for me to remember facts since I'm a natural visual learner and need to make graphs, models and pictures for myself all the time to study for exams as an undergrad. This book looks amazing and I will most definitely want to win a free copy if it means I can share it with everyone that comes over to my place and lets me indulge them in the wonderful world of info-graphics!

  • http://nawalatribe.blogspot.com/ nawala

    sounds cool! i love learning & im a visual learner…perfect fit :-)

  • paulmartin42

    and i thought women only came in one flavour – gorgeous

  • caseycamilleri

    I love the tons of carbon graphic! That is reallllllly interesting.

  • Ashley

    I like it!

  • http://3monthsforward.blogspot.com/ Laura

    Awesome looking book! Looks like one I would sit in Barnes and Noble with my coffee and peruse for awhile :-)

  • http://SourcesOfInsight.com/ J.D. Meier

    I'm a fan of visual representations. A lot of what I do in my day job is information engineering and information artistry.

  • TaraHill

    My cousin is graduating with her Masters in Physics and this would be right up her alley! I would love to win it to give to her as a gift! Thanks!

  • Brad

    ooooh…I want one! Where do I sign up? :)

  • balemar

    Wow! Thank you so much for sharing your find! I'm kind of obsessed now – I just backordered 2 copies on Amazon right now. (I don't want to chance not get the free book) I can't wait to see them and gift these out to my design friends.

  • jennem

    We'd all enjoy this!
    Jennifer, jennem22 at yahoo dot com

  • http://fiwk.blogspot.com/ Royce

    That book is awesome. Is it nerdy if I would open that book up to appreciate the graphs and images, even if I completely ignored the actual content of those graphs? Too nerdy?

  • Catherine

    Let's see… I like lists, I like random facts, I like to organize, well, just about everything. But, to see such things in pretty graphical form?!? Sounds like my version of nerd heaven!

    I also learned something new! Free books to review for bloggers, how cool! I love to read but not so much to write unfortunately.

  • http:silencebehindcloseddoors.blogspot.com Cheila_Esquilin

    Is it a crazy to say, my friend brought me this book last week? Wow, I guess we have the nerdiness in common :)

  • http://silencebehindcloseddoors.blogspot.com Cheila Esquilin

    By the way…the book is just plain awesome. :)

  • Vish

    I'd love a copy.

  • Eve

    oooooooohhhh, i'd love a shiny new book. sadly, i didn't bring many with me to korea. and you make it sound so damn appealing ms. jenny b!

  • cyclefiend2000

    free book eh?? i like the sounds of that!

    looks like an interesting one too.

  • Eve

    oooooooohhhh, i'd love a shiny new book. sadly, i didn't bring many with me to korea. and you make it sound so damn appealing ms. jenny b!

  • cyclefiend2000

    free book eh?? i like the sounds of that!

    looks like an interesting one too.

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