Book Review: The Little Book About Numbers by Dr Yvonne Tommis

Sara Rodriguez

Quants Corner was created for anyone interested in quantitative data. In large part we aim to showcase excellent resources, teaching methods, and research, both at City and beyond. An unrealised goal of ours has always been to feature the helpful / insightful / enjoyable books we have encountered while working, learning, and teaching on or with data. These include discipline-specific and theoretical texts, classic statistical guides, general social research textbooks, and the many books that employ strong quantitative analysis, whether written for an academic or general audience. Our Books section has examples of some of these and is organised by type. We encourage you to have a look and let us know what you think. 

This month’s blog entry kick-starts our book review series with Dr Yvonne Tommis’ short (83 page), light-hearted, The Little Book About Numbers for People Who Would Really Rather Not Have to Read About Numbers.

The Little Book About Numbers provides a basic introduction to essential statistical concepts and formulas. It is a how-to guide at its simplest and its emphasis is on understanding the basics and appropriateness of statistical methods, rather than on unpicking complex procedures. The book’s eight chapters are arranged by ascending difficulty: The Humble Percentage, The Not So Humble Percentage and Money, and Averages; Correlation, Standard Deviation, and Confidence Intervals; The Chi-square and The T Test. Each chapter is a stand-alone guide, making the book useful for dipping into at a personalised pace when and as needed—a strategy encouraged by the author. 

Topics are presented using real-world scenarios (Base Jumping stretches this slightly) and told in first person, so that reading Tommis’ book is akin to receiving a personalised lesson from the author. A conversational style makes the Little Book About Numbers highly readable; however, the book’s most distinguishing feature is the colourful cast of characters and upside-down circumstances Tommis has created to tell the story of everyday statistics. Whether helping lazy lions prepare for exams or fickle pigs on a shopping spree, basic statistics come to the rescue of both overworked donkeys and panicked cheetahs alike. 

The Little Book About Numbers is not a textbook in the classic sense—nor is it designed to introduce programmes such as Excel or SPSS. What the book does is establish a base knowledge for making sense of statistics commonly found in everyday life. And it does this in a way that is delightfully simple (a gift for those apprehensive about maths). It is a good first step into statistics, be it for new adult learners or social science students, or as part of a lesson or preparatory reading for more technical modules. 

Sara Rodriguez is a Research Assistant at City, University of London Q-Step Centre.