Statistics is usually taught as a fairly dry approach to discovering the truth about data. Is the mean of the population more than 20? Are the variances of these two populations different? Of course, there are usually details about the population provided to add some applicability. Is the mean number of frogs in each clutch of eggs greater than 20? Are the undisturbed and polluted habitats the same with regard to how much variance there is for the number of galls on each tree? This is all fine and good, but what an approach like this lacks is drama and romance ... this is where "The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis" takes a slightly different approach.
The book introduces us to two characters working in a tea shop - Miu and Risa. Miu has a crush on a customer and when he forgets his statistics book her co-worker Risa offers to teach her statistics, regression analysis in particular, in order to help her make conversation with the cute guy when she returns his book. This framing story is surprisingly effective in motivating the pursuit of undertsanding regression analysis.
The book starts with some basics: equations for lines, logs, calculating variance, multiplying matrices, and probability distributions. Then they work through detailed examples of several techniques: linear regression, multiple regression, logistic regression, and odds ratios. Along the way they briefly cover several advanced topics: autocorrelation, transformations, standardized residuals, Mahalanobis distances, and maximum likelihood to name a few.
The book links each technique to concrete questions by describing how each method can help the tea shop owners and employees make decisions. Miu and Risa use linear regression to predict tea sales based on the day's temperature, multiple regression to decide whether a store is likely to be profitable based on its square footage and distance to the nearest train station, and logistic regression to decide the probability that a special cake will sell or not on each given day. Linking techniques to concrete applications is helpful - doing so in the context of a story is even better.
The book also shows almost every calculation in detail, something we here at StatsExamples also strive to do. Because of this, it is remarkably approachable to those who may not have an advanced background in statistics or mathematics. Even so, the book manages to introduce some quite sophisticated concepts and give nice descriptions despite its concise length. It is an excellent and clear overview of regression methods.
We won't spoil the exact ending to the story here, but like all good mangas there are a few twists and turns. We trust that you won't be surprised to learn that there is a happy ending however. Learning statistics appears to be an effective approach to improving one's lovelife - in the comics anyway ;)
Lastly, if you'd like to buy a copy of this for yourself, click the picture above to go to the Amazon listing.
tl:dr, "The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis" is excellent - we recommend it".
Disclaimers: StatsExamples was not compensated in any way for this review. StatsExamples has not communicated with the authors of this book. StatsExamples does not have a financial relationship with the publisher. StatsExamples will receive a small payment from Amazon if you purchase the book using the link above.
