First of my Christmas books, a nice present from , compiling David McCandless’s personal favourites from the infographics he has posted at http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/ which I have glanced at from time to time in the past, and will now start reading more regularly.

Oddly enough I found myself less interested in the political graphs than in his desperate attempts to make sense of psychobabble and cooking – here’s one for instance mapping what flavours go with what main dishes. I also felt that he gave a bit too much weight (ie any at all) to the climate deniers in a couple of compare and contrast graphs. But the futurology ones are all very interesting. The other problem – which is hardly McCandless’s fault, but is imposed by the format – is that the graphs are all static. If you want nifty moving graphics of the future (and immediate past) of our world, you need to talk to Hans Rosling over at Gapminder.