Paul Murrell

I came to doing graphics in R via ggplot2, so I got what I wanted out of this book which was an overview of base graphics, grid, and lattice. There is a more recent 3rd edition which seems to have dropped Part IV Graphics Packages, which makes sense because a good chunk of the ones mentioned seem to no longer exist or be abandonware. The author has code and errata for all editions available on his website. Some of the more involved examples didn't speak to me because I'm skeptical of doing show more complex layouts programmatically instead of combining and annotating individual plots in a design application. show less

Not for the faint of hearts. Do not be confused: this book is NOT for beginners. It takes you under the hood of R, to explore the underlying elements of the R graphics system. You won't do a lot of statistical plotting. It is much more about understanding what constitutes the R graphic system. Actually, it presents a lot of R elements that most people will probably never use but if you want some advanced knowledge of the base graphic logic (and the grid system, and a bit of lattice), then, show more by all means, dive in. show less

Recently I am looking for tools (both software and statistical method) to do some research. I got statistics background but not a professional at all.

I find this single book can teach people how to start to do research in a very short time.There are so many tools and data available on the Net and they can collaborate together and yields so many findings.

This book can be your road map to give you guidance and jump start, in one word useful.

http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/... Review
http://ecotope.org/blogs/page/Murrel-2005.aspx