Agresti and Finlay are, above all, clear and accurate. Over the last decade, I've looked at several dozen alternatives, hoping to find one that's strong in the areas where this text is weak. I've been enticed by different layouts, writing styles, even overall motifs, but am always reminded of why I (and others) have relied on this text for so long.

Some alternatives are just sloppy - poor editing, excessive typographic errors, incorrect answers in the answer keys. Some others border on incompetent, confusing basic issues and not clarifying the disputes on border issues. And some, while achieving rapport through comics, comedy, or simply light humor, lose some of the subtle finesse that statistics entails.

Now, this one ain't perfect. The subtleties and disputes are side-stepped rather than highlighted. The text and layout are a bit wordy and eye-hard. And the examples are more practical than pedagogical. The data examples could be a bit sexier.

But the meat is all there, and correct, and clear. And that's what you want in a statistics textbook. You don't need something that pretends stats is inherently fun or exciting. The lecturer should convey the power of p, the coolness of coefficients, and the holy grail of "r-squared". The text book should cover the material accurately and in detail, and this one does.