I have shelves of books that are interesting, informative and entertaining. These however I have found to be thought provoking and insightful or very useful as Tufte and Strunk and White.
General Interest
- The Road to Serfdom – F. A. Hayek
- Free to Choose – Milton & Rose Friedman
- The Federalist Papers
- Seeing Like A State – James C. Scott
- In A Dark Wood – Alston Chase
- Knowledge and Decisions – Thomas Sowell
- The Vision of the Anointed – Thomas Sowell
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – Thomas S. Kuhn
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
- Undaunted Courage – Stephen E. Ambrose
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information – Edward R. Tufte
- The Elements of Style – William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
Art and Photography
- Pictures of Nothing – Kirk Varnedoe
- Light Science and Magic – Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua