SDS 210 Data Analysis Project

Author

Ivy T

Phase 2: Data Description

Topic & Origin

The main research question my data1 can be used to address is: What affects the price of a best selling book? Kaggle Books Cover

Description of Variables

The dplyr::glimpse() function can be used to get a quick overview of a data set’s contents.

kaggleBooks <- kaggleBooks |>
  dplyr::select(book_name, price, print_length, form, genre)
  dplyr::glimpse(kaggleBooks)
Rows: 210
Columns: 5
$ book_name    <chr> "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits…
$ price        <chr> "$18.88", "$11.05", "$11.99", "$13.62", "$11.37", "$13.94…
$ print_length <dbl> 320, 640, 416, 544, 288, 400, 452, 464, 336, 496, 384, 33…
$ form         <chr> "Hardcover", "Hardcover", "Hardcover", "Paperback", "Hard…
$ genre        <chr> "Self-Improvement", "Fiction & Action & Adventure", "Biog…
  • book_name: The title of observed best selling book.
  • price: The price of the book in U.S. dollars and change.
  • print_length: The length in number of pages of the book.
  • form: The form of the book such as paperback, hardcover, or board book.
  • genre: The book’s content genre (examples include fiction, adventure, biographies, etc.).

Data Wrangling

Data wrangling is the process of transforming “raw” data into the format you need for visualization and/or analysis.

These data2 were retrieved from Kaggle Books

Phase 3: Summarization

Table 1: Book Details Ordered by Price
Book Name Price Pages Form Genre
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI $9.99 416 Paperback Politics & Social Sciences
Twisted Love $9.99 352 Paperback Fiction & Action & Adventure
Little Corner: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens, Super Cute Designs of Cozy, Hygge Spaces for Relaxation (Cozy Spaces Coloring) $9.99 88 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
Cozy Friends: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens Featuring Super Cute Animal Characters with Easy and Simple Designs for Relaxation $9.99 88 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
Stress Relief: Coloring Book for Adults and Kids, Bold and Easy, Simple and Big Designs for Relaxation Featuring Animals, Landscape, Flowers, Patterns, Cute Things And Many More $9.99 110 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
Spooky Cutie: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens Featuring Adorable Creepy Creatures in Cozy Hygge Moments for Relaxation (Cozy Spaces Coloring) $9.99 88 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
Difficult Riddles For Smart Kids $9.99 79 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
Girl Moments: Coloring Book for Adults and Teens Featuring Cute Cozy Daily Activities for Relaxation (Cozy Spaces Coloring) $9.99 88 Paperback Arts & Music & Photography
A Court of Silver Flames $9.98 784 Paperback Fiction & Action & Adventure
Things We Hide from the Light $9.95 592 Paperback Fiction & Action & Adventure

Table 1 shows 10 of the books with their details that may give insight to their price presented.

Table 2: Combined Price and Page Statistics by Book Form
Form Avg Price Price SD Avg Pages Pages SD
Board book 5.73 3.77 56.94 93.21
Cards 3.07 NA NaN NA
Hardcover 13.10 5.18 349.96 235.57
Imitation Leather 25.64 NA 1400.00 NA
Paperback 11.84 8.34 364.72 319.70
Spiral-bound 6.42 NA 64.00 NA

Table 2 shows the average price and page numbers (and their standard deviations) per each form of book.

Table 3: Average Pages and Standard Deviation by Genre
Genre Average Pages Pages SD
Bible Study & Reference 573.8 469.8
Fiction & Action & Adventure 560.6 377.3
Computers & Technology 496.0 NA
Engineering 472.0 328.1
Romance 448.0 NA
Mystery & Thriller & Suspense 424.6 114.2
Biographies & Memoirs 420.5 172.5
History 418.7 320.6
Health & Fitness & Dieting 405.5 149.5
Business & Money 337.1 123.8
Politics & Social Sciences 312.1 95.1
Puzzles & Games 291.0 134.4
Self-Improvement 263.9 68.9
Friendship & Social Skills & School Life 224.0 NA
Cookbooks & Food 216.0 27.7
Comics & Graphic Novels 208.0 45.3
Parenting & Relationships 205.3 168.6
Humor & Entertainment 152.0 169.7
Arts & Music & Photography 89.4 36.5
Reading & Writing 65.1 65.0
Schools & Teaching 32.0 NA

Table 3 shows the average pages and their standard deviation per genre.

Phase 4: Data Visualization

Figure 1: Average Price and Page Count by Book Form (with SD)

Footnotes

  1. This dataset contains three yearly collections of best-selling books from 2023, 2024, and 2025.↩︎

  2. The data was manually collected from publicly available Amazon Best Seller rankings by an ICT engineering student and is intended for educational and analytical purposes.↩︎