It is also likely the most successful book about dataViz ever. Like many, it was the first book I ever read on the craft. Toady, I really luxuriate in how much praise Tufte gave to some really old work. I found Tufte’s ability to describe what is so magical about data storytelling to be way ahead of his time, almost poetic. My favorite line is the very last one in the book, “the task of the designer is to give visual access to the subtle and the difficult—that is, the revelation of the complex.”<br><br>I do not believe his advice on how to do it has weathered as well as his ability to describe how wonderful it is when it is done well. In the end, I was surprised by how few notes I took on this book. I found his later book Envisioning Information (1990) to be much more interesting, especially his way of describing micro/macro readings, small multiples, and “narratives of space and time.”