The Visual Diplay of Quantitative Information is not exactly a how-to book, in that it won't give you step by step instructions on how to create charts. Rather Tufte shows us principles of good design, principles of bad design (i.e. how people lie with graphics) all accompanied by many inspirational examples.<br><br>His examples strike us with their beauty and economy and show us how picturing data makes a huge difference in how effectively and quickly we understand it. Looking at Mivart's chart of Napoleon's march on Moscow, or the Salyut 6 hand drawn mission schedule, or a Japanese train schedule can only make a geek like me gush out "Way cool!".<br><br>I find it gratifying that Tufte takes so many examples from Japan, where I live. The Japanese are often accused of simply working with other people's ideas. This is naive and the Visual Diplay of Quantitative Information provides an excellent counterexample of the Japanese being sophisticated leaders in a creative endeavor.<br><br>Vincent Poirier, Tokyo