read across an embarrassingly long period of time because i lost the original gifted copy while moving and started back up on a new copy a few years later. 
statistics is the least recent field of math that i've taken (since high school?) so it was both a little painful and a little refreshing to get through this book. Ellenberg's tone is very friendly; his humor only gets a little annoying when i'm in a bad mood. but he covers a lot of very practical situations and breaks down the statistical theory and its history for each. he also just has some really great literary references and pieces of wisdom sprinkled throughout. i can't say i'll understand or remember all the details, but that's my fault for not reading with great care!