I took a quick break from art history to read Charles Seife's Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, and you should, too! This is a book that I would recommend for anyone. It's fun, it's a really quick read, and even if you already know all the math, it's convenient to have all this info in one place. Plus, it's a book about lying with statistics that doesn't quote Mark Twain, and how common is that?
In Proofiness, Seife reminds us that, while we are often led to view them as pure fact, numbers in the real world measure real things, and are thus really fallible. We can be easily fooled by numbers, either by accident or intentionally, because they lend authority to an argument. Seife takes us through the most common tactics of chronic number-abusers: juking the stats, cherry-picking data, pretending to specificity, and, when all else fails, just making stuff up. Then he uses real-world examples to show how 'proofiness' is adversely effecting our economy, our judicial system, and even basic democracy.
Seife brings passion and a sense of humour ("78 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.") to the work that make it a compelling read. He also really tries to avoid any political agenda beyond educating people so that they can make better decisions (I would argue that his title somewhat undermines his professed non-partisanship, not that I mind). It's more of a media literacy book than a math one, and as such would maybe be an especially appropriate gift for anyone you know that needs a hand with not believing everything they read (or hear, or watch on TV).
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