How the mighty are falling... so many typos; did he ever proofread this? And too many pages (of this admittedly beautiful book) I found to be incomprehensible. And of those I did understand, many seemed to be simply conclusory material: too often he presents statements or quotations as if they are facts, or clever-but-true aphorisms (which are something else entirely), without providing any basis for them.

His first volume is amazing. The second is good, although the fourth is mostly a somewhat improved version of similar material. The third left no impression on me at all. And this fifth seems to be written to a much different, and far lower, standard. Much of the time, I simply had no idea of what new point he was trying to make (nor, therefore, how it might affect how I create or consume material intended to communicate facts).

I try to read Tufte's books with my brain firmly engaged; but even so this one just left me wondering what it was all about. ( )

I have all five of Tufte's books on graphic display and, while it is interesting, I find this one the least enjoyable. This is partly down to the scrappy layout and structure, presumably trying to emulate a notebook style of information presentation. At times it seems repetitive, and makes strange claims for disruptive typesetting. ( )