Statistics 571: Statistical Methods
Books of Interest for Bonus Book Reports

You can get bonus points for writing a book report on any of these books:

Books:

• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
  by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The role of the unexpected. The opposite of what Stat 571 covers. (Best seller in August 22, 2007.)
• Read the bestseller "Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything"
  by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner. Turn in a book report discussing the importance of regression for the subject of the book.
• Turn in a report on Robert E. Rubin's account of how he uses probability to solve problems and make money "In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington." Robert Rubin was secretary of the treasury during the Clinton administration.
• Turn in a report on "The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century"
  by David Salsburg
• Read the former bestseller "Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" by Peter L. Bernstein. Turn in a report on how probability and statistics can be used to manage financial risks of all types.
• Read as much as you can of the textbook "The Statistical Sleuth: A Course in the Methods of Data Analysis" by Fred L. Ramsey and Daniel W. Schafer. Duxbury. This is the best introductory statistics textbook that I have ever read. Turn in a report about randomization as a justification for statistical procedures. This material is at the beginning of the book. This book is the ideal second book to read in statistics. A wonderful reference.
• Read "Designing Clinical Research: An Epidemiologic Approach, Second Edition" by Stephen B. Hulley, Steven R. Cummings, Warren S. Browner, Deborah Grady, Norman Hearst, and Thomas B. Newman. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. A text on planning and implementing clinical research, for beginning investigators. Section I examines basic ingredients of research, such as selection of study subjects, hypotheses, and estimating sample sizes. Section II presents design options, covering cohort, cross- sectional, case-control and diagnostic test studies, clinical trials, and confounding. Section III looks at additional skills in ethics, data management, and community and international studies. Emphasis is on common sense as the main ingredient of good science.
• Read "Statistical Issues in Drug Development" by Stephen Senn. Wiley. Discuss some of the insights of this book.

Foundations of Probability and Statistics

• Read "Statistics: A Bayesian Perspective" by Donald A. Berry. Duxbury. This is an elementary introduction to statistics from the Bayesian point of view which is very easy to read. Write a report discussing the Bayesian approach as presented in this book.
• Read "Comparative Statistical Inference, Third Edition" by Vic Barnett. Wiley. This book compares most alternative approaches to statistics using a minimum of mathematics. Discuss the main approaches to statistical inference.
• Read "The Subjectivity of Scientists and the Bayesian Approach" by S. James Press and Judith M. Tamur. Wiley. Turn in a report contrasting the Bayesian approach with the classical approach to statistics.
• Read "Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach, Second Edition" by Colin Howson and Peter Urbach. Open Court Publishing Company. This book is somewhat hard to read but is accessible to the intelligent layman. Shows why Bayesian statistics is the way to go. And why randomization is not as important as sometimes made out to be. Discuss what the authors think is wrong with classical statistics and how the Bayesian approach overcomes these problems.

This is a wonderful book for those who want to understand the state of the art of Bayesian principles and techniques as they are applied to just about every important statistical situation. What is just as beautiful about this book is that it is designed for the layman, as well as the thoughtful practitioner of statistical reasoning.

Jerrold L. Aronson
International Studies in Philosophy

• Read "An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic" by Ian Hacking. Cambridge University Press. Turn in a report discussing the seven questions requiring inductive reasoning at the beginning of the book and the reasons why many people get them wrong. This book is aimed at mathematically challenged philosophy mayors. "While written as an introductory text, it is full of philosophical wisdom." - David Papineau, King's college, London.
• Read five short articles is the compilation "Statistics in the 21st Century" edited by Adrian E. Raftery, Martin A. Tanner, and Martin T. Wells. Chapman & Hall/CRC. You can find the titles of the articles in the book at Amazon.com book link. Summarize what you have learned for the report.

History and Origins of Ideas

• "The Taming of Chance" by Ian Hacking. Cambridge University Press. Selected by The Modern Library as one of the 100 most important non-fiction books published in English in the twentieth century. A series of historical examples showing how probability and statistical ideas arose.
• "The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas About Probability, Introduction and Statistical Inference" by Ian Hacking. Cambridge University Press. An earlier book by the great contemporary philosopher of science.
• "Statistics on the Table: The History of Statistical Concepts and Methods" by Joseph Stigler. Harvard University Press. Stigler is the foremost historian of statistics.