Functional Art, The: An introduction to information graphics and visualization, 1st edition

In The Functional Art, instructor Alberto Cairo explains how information graphics and visualizations are cognitive tools that extend our perception and how we can use them to see beyond lists of numbers, variables, and phenomena to identify patterns and trends that would be invisible otherwise. The book also includes a DVD-ROM containing 90+ minutes of video tutorials that expand on the concepts explained in the book as well as exercises that viewers can use to put their newly found skills to the test.
"Read It. There is really nothing else to say. If you care about how visualization is used to communicate to people, this is the book for you. If you’re a journalist, you need to read it. If you’re an academic doing visualization research, you really, really need to read it. This is the stuff we’ve been missing in visualization for the last 25 years.
Don’t trust my opinion? Nick Diakopoulos thinks it will be the standard text for visual journalists going forward, and even Stephen Few likes it." - Robert Kosara, EagerEyes