Anything by John Hedgecoe is great. He is not an arrogant author. His work is great and he uses it as examples, but he doesn't toot his own horn when he points to a piece and tells the story behind it like many authors tend to do. My favorite is not carried by amazon at this time. It is called "The Art of Digital Photography".

Another Good Elements and Principles of Design book.

All of the wow books are great! I've gone through most of them in Fry's Electronics' coffee shop.

These are the basic fundamentals of illustrator plus some in a brilliantly colored book. Fantastic buy!