If you are interested in early baseball, two books I liked are:

“Crazy 08” by Cait Murphy (about the 1908 baseball season)
“Ed Delahanty& the Emerald Age of Baseball” by Jerrold Casway (It should dispel some myths about the purity of early baseball.)
I also liked “Victory Faust: How a Rube Saved McGraw’s Giants” by Gabriel Schechter. It is the story of a remarkable character but is even more interesting for the picture of McGraw’s era.

There are numerous terrific biographies of great stars such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Sandy Koufax among others. Lesser players such as Eldon Auker and Bill Werber wrote memoirs when they were each in his 90s about their experience in the major leagues during the 1930s. If he is alive, Werber is over 100 now while Auker died in 2006 at age 96.

If you haven’t read the classic “The Glory of their Times” by Lawrence Ritter, I think you should. Based on interviews with early 20th century players, it is more than just nostalgia. And a modern classic I am sure will be “The Soul of Baseball” by Posnanski about his one year travels with Buck O’Neill. Very moving and also informative.

If you just want some light reading I suggest “Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends” in which he tries to track down the legitimacy of many famous stories in baseball history. Great fun.

And I also think a required reading for anyone trying to understand the history of baseball statistics (from the 19th century to the present) and the continuing arguments over them is Alan Schwarz’s “The Numbers Game”. Very readable and puts to rout any remaining doubters of the integral relationship between statistical thinking and baseball history.

I consider “Ball Four” a must read. Jim Bouton’s diary-like book about his 1969 year with the Seattle Pilots. Also discusses his early career with the Yankees. It went against the baseball establishment at the time and still holds up very well.

“The Bronx Zoo” is Sparky Lyle’s attempt at the same type of style and is also a pretty good read. Took a little longer for me to get into.

I always recommend “The Bad Guys Won” to people around my age (mid-20s). Very entertaining book on the 1986 Mets. I’ve heard the author’s book on the Dallas Cowboys “Boys will be Boys” is also very good.

Last one that comes to mind is “The Last Ticket Out”. It’s about Darryl Strawberry’s 1980 high school team. Interesting stuff.

I also enjoy looking at Rob Neyer’s “The Big Book of Baseball Lineups” every so often.

Then there are the books that I hold above anything written before or since. I know RJ pointed out a lot of SABR friendly stuff but nothing can touch the Bill James stuff IMO. The early Baseball Abstracts are still pretty expensive (1977-1981) but the later (1982 – 1988) ones are pretty affordable on eBay. It’s amazing to pick one up and see that James pointed things out twenty years ago that make a whole lot of sense and are still not known and accepted by 90% of baseball fans.

I think the abstracts are pretty well known but his other books from the late 80s and early 90s are equally as good. “The Great Amercian Stat Books” from 1987 and 1988 are fantastic, each includes several essays that hold up extremely well. His “The Baseball Book” from 1990 – 1992 are also enjoyable, especially if you grew up in that era.

My new favorites are the Baseball Scorecards from 1991 and 1992 (the year may be slightly off). I’m not even sure if they are Bill James books, but they are from his group of authors and are very interesting. The points of interest are way outdated (does anyone care about what umpire called the fewest strikeouts in 1991?) but the information presented is still fascinating.

I’m sure I’m missing several good ones and will probably add some later.

I read a book by Daniel Okrent, “Nine Innings”. As I recall (and I may be misremembering), it took an ordinary mid-season game between the Brewers and another team (Orioles?) and narrated it practically pitch for pitch, examining the strategies of the pitcher and catcher, the approaches of the batter and the like. I think each half inning was either followed (or perhaps incorporated within the description) by an essay on some individual involved with the game-the owner, manager, a player, an umpire and so on. I found it a wonderful read.

i read that book in 3 days, i was so into that book, i already knew the story of josh hamilton, but i wanted to know what it was like for him, and i loved that book, i definetly reccomded u read that book.