This is really a mischaracterization. The point of the book was to address data tooling topics (and the bare essentials: IPython and NumPy and matplotlib); for most data tasks (especially Chapters 7, 9, and 10) I would challenge you to replicate all of the data work without using pandas and then come back and snark on HN about how I'm self-promoting, or whatever. The truth is, it's the only game in town for complex structured data manipulation in Python, unless you want pages and pages of spaghetti nested dicts and lists.
The sales numbers already show that the book was timely and relevant to a huge (> 10,000 so far) number of people.
In defense of Wes, the book does do a good job of introducing you to IPython and NumPy. I had mainly used Python as a generic scripting language prior to reading much of this book, mainly writing vanilla scripts in emacs. Afterwards (and with the help of online pandas docs), I felt like I was fairly productive at analyzing some new data that had been thrown my way.
I can definitely see why some think that the title is misleading. The book clearly does not aim to survey the field of data analysis in Python. However, it does teach you everything you need to know to start doing data analysis in Python using one particular (good) tool chain.
Wes, there needs to be a great book about Pandas as it's an amazing tool, and you've written it. But Data Analysis is a HUGE subject and passively implying that it can only be tackled with Pandas is misleading. My post was intended to be a snark at O'Reilly's general failing quality - I'm sorry if I put your nose out of joint.
I do data analysis and pandas is a huge part of that. He can't usefully write about the whole universe of data analysis. The part he wrote about is definitely quite relevant.
Have to agree, piqufoh's comment is asinine. Pandas is the first time I've even considered moving work done in R to a new all-python workflow. Exhaustive coverage by some imaginary, disinterested third party would still be forced to settle on pandas as the focus, because it literally is the only game in town.
As to the merits, per se, of having some third party write the book: I'm doubtful. I followed wesm's development through blog posts, twitter updates, etc. Writing pandas forced him to consider a lot aspects of dealing with data in python, both deep and practical. In the process, I'm confident he became one of the foremost experts in not only his own software but in the current state of Data Analysis in Python. Who better to write this book?
The sales numbers already show that the book was timely and relevant to a huge (> 10,000 so far) number of people.