My Joomla library:
Joomla! A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website (Paperback)
by Barrie M. North
Beginning Joomla!: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional) (Paperback)
by Dan Rahmel
There are more but they are not worth the waste of paper they are printed on.
These are two I refer to most often and are very thorough.
They deal primarily with Joomla 1.5 and you might as well start with this, being the latest secure release.
Please do not waste your money on the many others books listed on amazon. I have. So consider this fair warning.
Look for
Joomla User's Guide from the
Joomla.org site. I printed this out (free) and bound it. Very detailed info.
Also,
Joomla!: Visual QuickStart Guide is a new release (Nov 21) and most likely is worth a look.
Traditionally these are some of the better editions for learning.
I would also look at those titles for your other requests as well.
Additionally, the
Head First series are good, the
Teach Yourself series, and someone already mentioned the
O'Reilly.
The releases by a company called
Apress (see second title listed) are typically very very good and have become some of my favorite Beginning editions.
The Dummies Series are mostly
Dummies Wasting Money and have been a
big disappointment for hands on learning.
And the Amazon links are NOT affiliate links.