As for the books Janzen's is a great buy cheap and covers a lot of ground, then I woudl go for the reprint of Keislings great series not cheap - none of the bayoent books really are either new or 2nd hand - but the broadest cover for its price. the ABC series is exceleltn - well vol's 1 and 2 anyway - but are in Frenchicon. Martin Brayeleys picture book is very cheap and full of good color pictures, Ji Maddox's if you can find one is good for all the blades you wish you could get. After that the best books are all specific to a country, period or type and become essential if you want to seriously collect those

See th ebibliography page on my site for most of th ebooks avaialalbe