Over on my ‘References‘ page, I have updated the collection of data visualisation and related books. The list is now up to 99 titles, which makes for a nice soundbitey title but it will continue to grow and in a more timely manner than before now.
I was recently in discussion with Robert Kosara on Twitter and he made the observation that a complete list of books is not always necessarily useful for someone trying to make their way in data visualisation. I agree with the sentiment but think it is worth clarifying what this collection is and is not.
Firstly, it is not complete. The collection includes only the books I own or I have read – I have not included any books I’ve not yet personally read, regardless of their merit. It is very much a personal collection of books that have had some influence on my knowledge about data visualisation and other closely-related subject areas. I will keep adding to the line up as soon as I come across new books.
Secondly, I have not applied any sort of editorial recommendation filter. I have dabbled in reviewing books in the past but I find it something of a blunt exercises as we all expect and hope to get different things out of different books. A poor book in the eyes of one person, because they knew it all already, is inspiring to the next person. So rather than just limit this list to the books I love, I have thrown them all up there so visitors browsing the list can decide for themselves what they’re after.