by D Beau
I don't think it's terribly well-respected among hardcore Chess enthusiasts, but my favorite is "The Tao of Chess" by Peter Kurzdorfer. It's much less in-depth than the other chess books I've perused, merely touching on the general principles and various rules-of-thumb of chess tactics/strategy. A mere one (usually fairly simple) example is provided for each principle, along with an (often trite) attempt to tie the principle into life in general.Nevertheless, this one book has improved my chess game more than all the others combined, because I find it better to touch briefly on many ideas, rather than focusing at length on a few. The ideas may be underdeveloped, but at least the seeds are planted in my head.
The writing is also a bit more flavorful than the usual dry fare.