Information is Beautiful

'Information is Beautiful' and 'Knowledge is Beautiful' are two of my most prized books. If I could pick the perfect coffee table book, it would be one of these beauties. Knowledge is Beautiful might just win because it provides context as well as the facts; highlighting how facts can be distorted to give a certain impression (a nice little trick commonly used by the media).

They're books full of facts, some of which you probably never needed or desired to know, but hey! Information is Beautiful! I love these books so much because they have such a broad appeal and they cross subject borders, bringing science, politics, literature, art and so many more together. It is also a similar approach to that of William Grill (previous post mentions him more) and his visual lists. The useful and not-so-useful facts in 'Information is Beautiful' are presented in the form of infographics (data presented in an illustrative format).

Take these as examples:

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/blog/ - More wonderful stuff on their blog!