my personal favorites are GM Kotov's Think Like a GM, Train like a Gm, and Play Like a GM, which helped me a lot to rethink about chess as a whole. also very helpful for those who aspire to become a master are Dvoretsky's books, which i highly commend. anyway if anybody likes a copy of them in electronic book .pdf or .djvu format email me, and i'll be glad to share them with you guys. quaoar_machine@yahoo.com

Some of the books that I learned something from are David Bronstein's The Sorceror's Apprentice, David Bronstein's Zurich 1953, Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov's Art of the Middlegame, Alexander's Kotov Play Like a Grandmaster, Mikhail Tal's The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal and Jonathan Tisdall's Improve Your Chess Now.

I have software instead of books

Fritz Chess

 yes

I myself stay away from books, I have chess life magazine coming my way, so, that ought to occupy my time.  Also, I get all my needed info from many chess related websites....

James  Vargus "The pirc black and white" excellent book.

Practical Chess Analysis by Mark Buckley is apparently going to be reprinted this year by Thinkers Press. 

Two books that I would recommend are "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" by Jeremy Silman and "Winning Chess Openings" by Bill Robertie.

No matter what books you get, the one thing to keep in mind is that you are you. You have your mind, your ideas, your abilities. Books can only add to what you already know, and it is your knowledge that leads you to better decisions.

With that in mind, there would be few "bad" books, because none can take away from what you have, only add to it.

On the other hand, one authour beginners should be warned to steer clear of is Eric Schiller. He has written hundreds of books, so you see one or two wherever you go, but they all SUCK. If any author will steer your chess mind in the wrong direction, especially in openings, its Schiller. Avoid him like the plague.

Chess by Polgar.

It's pretty much all puzzles of increasing complexity. but it really does improve one's game.

For the record, I found Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess to be almost worthless to anyone who is not a complete beginner at the game.

oh, i should add, hans kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess is very commendable. really, Philidor's adage 'Pawns are the very soul of chess' is very true. i was awakened as to how little i know about chess when i read this book. Yasser Seirawan's ProChess:Video Chess Mentor is good, Sawin, you should try look for it. and ChessBase has got lots of instructional videos as well. and, chess.com itself has introduced video lessons, right? that's why it's simply the best chess site i ever visited... im just unfortunate not having yet a job and consequently not having the capacity to pay for membership here....yet.

Most of what I have are old books I "borrowed" from my dads library. He has a lot of IA Horowitz, who I really enjoy. Chess Openings: Theory and Practice as well as Chess Traps, Pitfalls and Swindles (first chess book I read since I was like .... 8 and had the ones with the pretty illustrations).

Only real problem is they use descriptive notation, which I find harder to process quickly than algebraic.

you're right, sneekypat. i dont even believe that bobby fischer himself would write a book like that...perhaps the real authors just used the great chess genius's name to enhance the marketability of the book, but it's really not a good idea after all. i couldn't just recommend it, even for complete beginners.

Go to the library. That way you can see which ones are good for you. The Bobby Fischer book is probably one of the best because it teaches you about combinations. It's mostly endgames from what a I recall. But the best thing about it is it is set up a a series of single-page pazzles with the solution on the next page. When you get to the end of the book you turn it over and go back through all the other sides of the pages of the book (if you follow me). So you can actually read it on the bus or whatever. With most chess books unless you're very experienced, you need to have a chess board handy to visualize the positions.

I've had Horowitz's Chess Openings book for a long time and I love it. The material must be dated by now but it's still a great learning tool. It's like an MCO with more explanation.

I agree that Fischer's Teaches Chess book is only good for very beginners but I think it's an excellent book for them. It's starts out simple and gradually gets more difficult. It doesn't overwhelm them at the beginning and leaves them wanting more at the end. Presto! another chess addict. :-)