I was in the same boat as you. I have an undergrad math degree but took no statistics. I have found that most statistics books are inscrutable at best and complete wastes of paper and effort at worst. Based on the book recommendations I've been given by people who supposedly use statistics all the time, I don't believe that many trained statisticians have any idea what they are doing.
That said, here's what has sort of worked for me:
- Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick
- Fundamentals of Applied Probability Theory by Al Drake: out of print, and mostly about probability. However, the stats intro at the end is the clearest one I've ever read. Originally recommended to me by Philip Greenspun.
- Introductory Statistics with R by Peter Dalgaard. I'm assuming if you are posting to Hacker News you probably are coming from a programming background. This book does exactly what the title says, shows you how to apply introductory statistics by programming. It's heavier on R than stats.
That said, here's what has sort of worked for me:
- Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick
- Fundamentals of Applied Probability Theory by Al Drake: out of print, and mostly about probability. However, the stats intro at the end is the clearest one I've ever read. Originally recommended to me by Philip Greenspun.
- Introductory Statistics with R by Peter Dalgaard. I'm assuming if you are posting to Hacker News you probably are coming from a programming background. This book does exactly what the title says, shows you how to apply introductory statistics by programming. It's heavier on R than stats.