Edward Tufte's book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" is a classic that is still relevant today. It was written before Excel charts etc but the key concepts, especially "less ink is better", is something that everyone should subscribe to. It also contains my favourite chart which is Charles Joseph Minard representation of Napleons march (and subsequent retreat) to Russia. It shows the size of the army, relevant to location and temperature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png