I wrote this guide recently for pure destruction build. It may contain some tips you may find useful.
http://www.gamesas.com/forum/118-skyrim-general-discussion/
Destruction is widely thought to be the weakest of magic schools. Perhaps so, but I have been satisfied with its strengths. Its ranged weapons makes it best way to fight a dragon, in my opinion. Maybe conjuration is equally effective, or maybe it's more effective, but I prefer doing the killing on my own. Conjuration is very strong school. There are many people who love conjuration, but I find necromancy and dead thrall rather creepy and unpleasant.
Alteration is also very strong. I have not been impressed by mage armor, but I found paralysis and dragonhide to be very strong. Also, detect life and detect undead spells are very powerful tools for planning your battles and not getting surprised.
Illusion is also very very good. You have the muffle spell, a low level, rather inexpensive spell which makes you invisible to falmers. You also have invisibility spell when you level up, which makes you invisible.

The ability to troll the game with calm/fury type spells is also very fun.
I don't use restoration that much, but recently I used 3 perks to get the avoid death perk. If you hate dying like I do, I think it may be worth it to you.
There are many cool and strong ways of playing a mage. Have fun.