Presentation Zen

At #3 on the Customer’s Favorites list is Garr Reynold’s “Presentation Zen“, his wildly-popular and highly regarded book on making presentations simpler, clearer and more effective. His website www.presentationzen.com is also a good resource to keep an eye on.

Back of the Napkin

At #5 on the Editor’s Picks list and #8 on Customer favorites is Dan Roam’s “The Back of the Napkin” which serves as an excellent jumping off point for anyone who has even an inkling that images can often be the best way to identify, understand, solve and communicate complex business problems. His ideas are accessible to anyone and everyone with a pen and a piece of paper (or napkin).

Both books have been highly praised and if I had a nickel for every time someone suggested I check them out this year I’d be well on my way to retirement. If you haven’t picked them up yet I highly suggest you do.

Honorable Mention

Personally I would give an honorable mention to Nancy Duarte’s “slide:ology” – I suspect it only missed being this list due to it’s late release in the year (both Garr & Dan’s books came out Q1 2008) as it’s very deserving of a spot. Slide:ology covers a huge range of topics in surprising depth and exceptional clarity. Laying out lessons learned in Duarte’s 20+ years of experience in developing and designing presentations for some of the largest brands in the world, it’s the first business book in a long time that has had the “novel effect” on me – in the sense I just can’t seem to put it down and find myself sneaking time to read “just a few” more pages.

It’s a great sign for the visual thinking industry as all three books are in the Top 500 selling books on Amazon right now! They’re all great reads and should probably be considered standard must-haves for any visual thinkers library. These books (and more) are available in our VizThink store.

Catch Dan Roam & Nancy Duarte at VizThink 2009 in San Jose

Books are great but nothing beats the real thing – both Dan Roam and Nancy Duarte will be facilitating at VizThink 2009 – our upcoming conference in San Jose, CA, February 22-25, 2009 along with a two and half days of sessions facilitated by some of the top minds in visual thinking and communication (more announcements coming).

As an added bonus – Register before November 30 and you can save $100 off the regular attendee price. Non-profit, Goverment & Educational discounts are also available.

What are your favorite visual books of 2008?

Did Amazon miss something really great? Know of an undiscovered gem we should all be reading? We’d love to hear your suggestions for top visual books of 2008 – add yours to the comments below!