Infographic Idyll

Information glut got you down? Step away from the glowing screens and spend a few hours with The Visual Miscellaneum (HarperCollins) by writer and designer David McCandless. Billed as "a colorful guide to the world's most consequential trivia," the new book is a collection of innovative graphs, charts, and illustrations that visualize surprising relationships and compelling data. "Ultimately, I wanted to explore a whole range of subjects as visually and beautifully as possible, with the minimum of text," says McCandless, who tackles topics ranging from the global economy to ketchup. But there's one graphical format you won't find featured prominently among the miscellany. "My pet-hate is pie charts," he notes. "Love pie. Hate pie-charts."