Are the books worth buying?

I recommend the iPod Missing Manual. It's helped me with troublesome troubleshooting issues.

I suppose it depends on how comtputer literate you are, and how advanced you want to get...

I've purchased three books myself, more for reference purposes than anything else:

iPod & iTunes for Dummies, 2nd Edition: This is a good reference book, focusing on most of the basic to intermediate features and applications within iTunes and the iPod. It focuses more on iTunes (simply because there's more to iTunes), and offers some useful tips. Personally, though, there's not much in this book that you couldn't glean from a visit to Jerrod's iPod 101/201 series of articles coupled with a trip through iPodlounge.

Hacking iPod & iTunes, by Scott Knaster: This is a book targeted at the intermediate to advanced iPod/iTunes user. Most of the suggestions for hacks here can be found on iPodlounge as well with a bit of digging, but it's handy to have them consolidated into one book. Comments on various accessories are provided, as well as a lot of tips and tricks for using iTunes.

iPod & iTunes Hacks, by O'Reilly: Like most O'Reilly books, this is a good in-depth advanced reference. This book is by far the most technically in-depth of the three, and it's not really all that useful as a tutorial, but it does have a lot of really neat tips and tricks in it for the advanced user. The stuff in here ranges from hardware to software tips. Hardware tips include things like building your own headphone amplifier, replacing your batteries, and even building your own iPod case out of cardboard... :confused: Software tips include cleaning up your ID3 tags, bulk-ripping CDs, importing lyrics, and controlling iTunes with Java, Perl, and/or AppleScript. The target audience for this book ranges from the advanced user to the ubergeek propellerhead.

Originally posted by dcmacnut
I recommend the iPod Missing Manual. It's helped me with troublesome troubleshooting issues.
I picked it up just to have it. I liked the guides and tips and tricks. Later on my iPod's hard drive started doing crazy things (like not working, giving me strange icons) and there was a section on getting a dead hard drive to live again which helped me -- the first time. The second time their tricks didn't work, and earned my iPod a trip to Apple for replacement (under warranty, thankfully).