Exploring further the theme of books, I'd like to highly recommend the following:
1) SO MANY BOOKS: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance - Gabriel Zaid
2) THE CASE FOR BOOKS: Past, Present and Future - Robert Darnton
3) MERCHANTS OF CULTURE: The Publishing Business in the 21st Century - John B. Thompson
4) AN ALPHABETICAL LIFE: Living it Up in the World of Books - Wendy Werris
5) A BOOK ADDICT'S TREASURY - Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy
"Searching for Howards End one day in her seemingly infinite Gloucestershire farmhouse, the novelist Susan Hill encounters a mountain of unread Booker prize winners and Richard and Judy recommendations. She resolves thenceforth to stop buying books for a year and to explore her own voluminous bookshelves instead.
* "The Oxford Companion to the Book", ed. Michael F. Suarez (wish I could afford to buy this one)
* "The Smithsonian Book of Books", ed. Michael Olmert (gorgeously illustrated)
* "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf
* "The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World" by Paul Collins
* "Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co." by Jeremy Mercer
* "A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen", ed. Susannah Carson
* "On Writing" by Stephen King
* "How Reading Changed My Life" by Anna Quindlen
* "84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff
* "Books" by Larry McMurtry
* "Wit" by Margaret Edson
*" Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov
* "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk
* "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco
* "The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears
Some additional recommendations I would like to make are:
1) BOUND IN VENICE: The Serene Republic and the Dawn of the Book --- Alessandro Marzo Magno
2) MY BOOKSTORE: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop --- Ronald Rice
3) ONE FOR THE BOOKS --- Joe Queenan
1) SO MANY BOOKS: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance - Gabriel Zaid
2) THE CASE FOR BOOKS: Past, Present and Future - Robert Darnton
3) MERCHANTS OF CULTURE: The Publishing Business in the 21st Century - John B. Thompson
4) AN ALPHABETICAL LIFE: Living it Up in the World of Books - Wendy Werris
5) A BOOK ADDICT'S TREASURY - Julie Rugg & Lynda Murphy
"Searching for Howards End one day in her seemingly infinite Gloucestershire farmhouse, the novelist Susan Hill encounters a mountain of unread Booker prize winners and Richard and Judy recommendations. She resolves thenceforth to stop buying books for a year and to explore her own voluminous bookshelves instead.
* "The Smithsonian Book of Books", ed. Michael Olmert (gorgeously illustrated)
* "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf
* "The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World" by Paul Collins
* "Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co." by Jeremy Mercer
* "A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen", ed. Susannah Carson
* "On Writing" by Stephen King
* "How Reading Changed My Life" by Anna Quindlen
* "84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff
* "Books" by Larry McMurtry
* "Wit" by Margaret Edson
*" Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov
* "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk
* "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco
* "The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears
... and plenty of others ... :)
1) BOUND IN VENICE: The Serene Republic and the Dawn of the Book --- Alessandro Marzo Magno
2) MY BOOKSTORE: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop --- Ronald Rice
3) ONE FOR THE BOOKS --- Joe Queenan