What makes a map "good" is specifically tied to what do you need the map for?

Some distort angles, some distort areas, some are intentionally distorted to represent data while maintaining topology.

Synder is one of several definitive "the map guy" candidates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Snyder

Chatty, detailed, authorative: Flattening the earth: two thousand years of map projections. Snyder, John P. (1993) https://annas-archive.org/isbn/9780226767475

    To call Flattening the Earth a detailed history of map projections is akin to calling a dictionary a list of words.

    Flattening the Earth is almost certainly the most exhaustive, detail packed, well written, and well illustrated compendium of information on the origin and use of map projections ever published.

( ~ review https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/artic... )

Technical: Map projections: A working manual https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1395

Free USGS download (397 pages): https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1395/report.pdf

Properties & Uses of Selected Map Projections Wall Chart: https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1395/plate-1.pdf