Essential LEGO Books

[Peppermint_M]

As I look at my Library, made up of many (many) books I have found that 20 of them are LEGO books, official and fan driven. 

I know for a fact, that there is now a new edition of The LEGO Book, but I already have the first two editions. I have Great Lego Sets and a number of the Minifigure guides. 

So, would anyone who has the latest edition of The LEGO Book be able to say if it is essential? 

Are there any books you highly recommend I get? (Or check if I do have. I know my book catalogue app has some entries missing, I have more than 666 books listed in it).

Are there any fan driven books that people can recommend? 

What LEGO books are your favourite?

[Lyichir]

Personally I get some of the most enjoyment out of illustrated fictional guidebooks based on particular themes, rather than the sort of reference books that more often than not are composed primarily of stock photography and facts that are more often than not readily available elsewhere. Books like The Book of Monsters and the subsequent Book of Monstrox are chock full of lavish illustrations that I often find more inspiring than pictures of sets or even MOCs and display models.

As far as nonfiction, one of the most perennially useful to me has been Brick by Brick by David Robertson, which offers a remarkably in-depth look at the factors that nearly led Lego to bankruptcy and how they turned things around. Especially as part of a community of AFOLs who often have only a surface level understanding of how Lego as a company is run, it's incredibly handy to have such an authoritative and well-researched book detailing how Lego went from pretty much its lowest point to becoming a dominant force in the toy industry.