I highly recommend the Black & Decker book series.

These books are easy to read and understand and they feature color pictures. Each book covers a different subject ie. Basic Electrical, Advanced Electrical, Plumbing, Masonry, Decks etc.

Accumulating these books costs more than buying a single book (eg. Home Depot's - Home Improvements 1 2 3) but they go into much greater detail and I've found them to be more useful.

I too have been pleased with Black & Decker's books, except that I don't like the way they split topics such as electricity and plumbing into two books, one having the title "Advanced". The only reason I can see for doing that is to get more money than they would otherwise be able to get for a single, larger book. Having said all this, I have several B&D books, and I find them very helpful.

For electrical work I also have a copy of the National Electrical Code, and I have my eye on a related publication that is essentially a commentary on the NEC.

Thanks for the advise. Looks like I'll be shopping for some Black and Decker books this weekend.

Again - thanks for taking the time to reply!